He's Mine
by 2queens1prince
Summary: When Elizabeth first sees Henry.
1. chapter 1

AN: Based on a lilacmermaid Tmiblr prompt: Elizabeth is sitting with a friend when she sees Henry walk into a room for the first time. She leans over and whispers, "He's mine."

I took this is a little different direction. I hope you like it.

Friday morning, Elizabeth Adams walked into the lecture hall for her World Religions class. It was the fifth week of her first semester at UVA. Midterms were at the end of the next week and everyone was trying to cram as much information into their brains as possible.

Finding her small group of friends, she sat down and half listened to their discussion about the most wanted men in their freshman class. Her friend, Kate, elbowed her, "Who is your ideal man?" Elizabeth wrinkled her nose and resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

"I don't have an ideal man," Elizabeth stated matter of factly.

"Aww, come on! Surely you have somebody you like." Kate pressed.

"No, really, I haven't seen anyone so far that I'd even lthink about dating much less call ideal." Elizabeth looked around the large lecture hall confirming to herself that really and truly, she wasn't interested in anyone she'd met.

"Okay then, how about qualities in your ideal man?" Elizabeth sighed, realizing she wasn't going to get off without some sort of answer.

"Umm, I haven't thought a lot about it, but he would need to be smart and kind. Taller than me would be a bonus. Comfortable with himself and not trying to impress me with how cool he is or how much he knows. I also want someone who is looking for a long term commitment, not a one night stand." Elizabeth looked at Kate. "Good enough?" Kate shrugged.

"You don't want much, do you?"

Elizabeth nodded, "I'd rather wait and find the right guy than settle for a string of mediocre ones."

"Well good luck with that," Kate laughed, turning her attention to the professor that walked in and started her lecture.

Elizabeth listened intently. Most of the information she knew. She had spent quite a bit of time studying various religions on her own and had already read the assigned reading for the first half of the semester. She wasn't too worried about the upcoming midterm test, but her interest was piqued at the end of class. "For those of you needing extra instruction, Henry McCord, a junior religious studies major, has volunteered to be available in the library conference room Monday evening at 7 to discuss the topics and give you extra insight. If you are in need of assistance on this midterm, I highly encourage you to attend. He knows what he's talking about, so much so, that he's never received any grade less than an A in any of his classes."

That name rang a bell. Elizabeth tried to place it. In fact, it bugged her most of the weekend. She hated it when she couldn't recall information she knew she had read. Her answer came Sunday evening when she was going through a stack of paperwork that accumulated on the corner of her desk. She picked up the school paper and there on the front page was article by none other than Henry McCord.

She smiled to herself, knowing that she'd seen his name before. Taking a few minutes, she sat down and read the article. The article, which highlighted the challenges of students attending college on need-based scholarships, was well thought out, well written and offered unique insight on a topic that Elizabeth personally had never given much thought to. Henry McCord seemed like a very interesting person, so much so that Elizabeth smiled to herself when she decided to attend the study group the next evening.

The mysterious Henry McCord occupied Elizabeth's thoughts most of the next day. He was obviously intelligent. She hoped he was as thoughtful and well spoken as his article indicated. Immediately Elizabeth chastised herself. "He's probably a 40 year old going back to school to get his degree or he pays other people to do his work for him. I'm being silly," she muttered. Of course, she was still going to go to the study group to check him out.

Sitting down with Kate at lunch, Elizabeth eyed her friend. "What?" Kate asked.

"Are you going to that World Religions test prep thing tonight at the library?" Elizabeth asked nonchalantly.

"I might, but why would you? You're already going to get an A and you probably don't even need to study." Kate lamented.

"I thought about just sitting in and listening and making that be my test prep," Elizabeth said.

"Of course. 'I'm just going to sit and listen in and count that as my test prep!" Kate said, using a whiny, exasperated voice. "Must be nice."

"Sorry. I wasn't trying to rub it in or anything. If it helps, I'll be spending the rest of the week preparing for the Calc II test." Elizabeth apologized.

"Only a little, since I'm also struggling in College Algebra." Kate said. "How about we meet here to eat dinner and then walk over together?"

"Sounds good," Elizabeth said and she stood and picked up her tray. "I'm off to study for that Calc test."

Very minimal studying was accomplished while the afternoon passed by at a snail's pace. Giving up, Elizabeth closed her book, changed into shorts and a t-shirt and went for a run. Putting in a couple miles, she returned to the dorm just in time to shower and change before heading to dinner to meet Kate.

They were walking to the library. Kate was droning on about whatever final she was studying for and Elizabeth was only half listening. She was thinking about how silly she was being, showing up to a study group, hoping to meet a guy that she thought might be worth her time to get to know. This was truly out of character for her and she knew it. "He's probably a pompous jerk and I will have wasted a whole night of studying for nothing," she mumbled almost inaudibly.

"What did you say?" Kate asked, suddenly diverted from her own rant.

"Oh, nothing, just thinking out loud," Elizabeth said. "What room was it again?" she asked, knowing full well which room it was, but she wanted to divert Kate's attention elsewhere.

Kate reached for her notebook to double check when she stopped, "Tiffanie and Hannah are over there. That must be it."

As they approached the room, Elizabeth overheard a conversation taking place at a table around the corner. It was at least three guys having a heated discussion about a war, but which one, she wasn't sure. She couldn't quite tell, but one voice in particular struck her. It was low and melodious, passionate, but not condescending to those he was speaking to. It made her heart skip a beat. She wanted to take a lap around the room and try to figure out who that was, but they had made it to the doorway of the study room and Kate pulled her inside.

They sat down at a table toward the back of the room. Elizabeth was surprised at the number of her classmates that actually took the time to come. There were probably twenty or so, many more than she would have guessed. It was a couple minutes after 7 when Henry McCord walked through the door. Elizabeth's breath caught in her throat. He had sandy brown hair, deep hazel eyes and a bright smile. He wore a simple button down shirt and jeans. He had broad shoulders and well defined arms indicating that he worked out. "Hey, guys. Sorry I'm a little late. I got caught up in a discussion about the justness of the Crusades. Let's get started." Elizabeth felt the heat from the flush of her face. The voice from outside belonged to none other than Henry McCord. Elizabeth unintentionally put her hand down and it brushed Kate's arm.

Kate turned to her, "What?" she whispered. Elizabeth was pulled from her reverie and looked at Kate. "Are you ok?" Kate asked.

"He's mine," Elizabeth whispered, more to herself than Kate.

"Who's your what?" Kate mouthed.

Realizing that she had actually spoken those words, Elizabeth shifted her eyes to Henry and Kate caught on. "My ideal." A knowing look crossed Kate's face and she grinned at Elizabeth. Elizabeth knew that later she would get teased for her strong reaction to this young man that she didn't even know, but in that moment, she didn't care. She turned her attention back to him soaking up all of his words to play on repeat in her head later.

Elizabeth had no idea what Henry might want to do with his life, but she felt that teaching was certainly his calling. He was excellent, taking his time, thoroughly explaining difficult concepts so that even the most ill-prepared students in the room could follow. She sat mesmerized as almost everyone in the room asked questions of him.

Toward the end of the second hour, Henry had pretty well covered the first five weeks of World Religions. "Is there anything else?" Henry looked over the group and once again spied the blonde in the back who had been listening intently, but had not said a word. Making eye contact with her, he asked, "Anything at all?"

Elizabeth's trance was broken when the question was posed, obviously to her. She smiled nervously at the man at the front of the room, before she spoke, "The question I've had this entire semester is why in a World Religions class is the focus primarily on the Judeo-Christian faith, giving only a nod to the religions of the Far East and barely a cursory glance to the many African tribal religions that were likely present long before Judaism?"

Henry's face broke out into a wide grin. "That is an excellent question, but it definitely won't be on the midterm, so I won't delve into it right now. But, if you would be willing to join me for coffee sometime, I'd be happy to discuss it with you." Elizabeth just nodded and Henry went on to answer a couple other questions, not that she heard either the questions or the answers because her heart was thumping wildly in her ears and her stomach was doing somersaults.

Kate elbowed her. "Well played!" she whispered excitedly as everyone started gathering their things to leave. Elizabeth blushed and decided that Kate's teasing would probably last for months.

Elizabeth gathered her things and made it a point to be the last one leaving the room. She approached Henry and hoped that her voice didn't give away her level of nervousness. "So you want to have coffee with me sometime?"

Henry looked at Elizabeth carefully. "No, Not sometime. I want to have coffee with you tomorrow-if you are agreeable." He smiled only slightly, wondering if had been too brazen.

"Well I have an opening between 1 and 2, or I'm free after 4."

"Let's go with after 4, I don't know that an hour is enough time." Henry said.

"Oh, do you have a lot to say on the subject?" Elizabeth queried.

"I could probably talk for hours, but I was hoping to get to know you," Henry shifted uncomfortably. This girl had all of his senses on high alert.

"Then 4 it is. Will the coffee shop in the Student Union work?"

"Sure. That works. Could I know one thing first?" Henry asked.

"Maybe."

"I'd like to know who I'm meeting." he smiled.

"Oh, yeah. Elizabeth. Elizabeth Adams. It's very nice to meet you," she said, extending her hand.

Shaking her hand, he said, "So far, it has been a pleasure. I can't wait for tomorrow."

"Me either." She walked out of the room and glanced over her shoulder. He was watching her so she gave a little wave, which caused him to blush. "I think this might end up being the best coffee I'll ever have," she murmured to herself as she met up with Kate to walk back to her room.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: I have a to do list a mile long and somehow this worked its way to the top. Hope you enjoy!

Coffee

Henry sat a a table facing the door. His fingertips strummed nervously on the table. Checking his watch for the fourth time, he exhaled forcefully. It was ten minutes to four. He'd only been sitting there three minutes. Running his hand through his hair, he closed his eyes and tried to talk himself off the ledge. Why are you getting so worked up about this? She's meeting you to talk about religion. She probably already has a boyfriend or at least a line of suitors that are much more appealing than nerdy religion boy. There's nothing about me that says chick magnet! Henry laughed at himself.

"Something funny?" the voice came from above him and Henry's eyes shot open. Elizabeth stood a step away, smirking.

"Just a little self deprecating humor," he mumbled as he stood. "How about we get that coffee?"

She held up her cup. "I just grabbed one." She cringed a little when his face fell. She wasn't sure what the protocol was for coffee shop religious banter and she worried that she'd inadvertently insulted him.

"Oh, okay. I'll be right back then."

As Henry stepped away, Elizabeth turned her head and smacked her forehead with her palm. "What are you doing?" she muttered under her breath. This was unfamiliar territory for her. Elizabeth wasn't used to being the object of someone's attention, unless it was competitive. She spent lots of time with guys, in study groups, in heated philosophical discussions, in class vying for the top spot. Occasionally those casual relationships manifested themselves in a physical nature, but never was there any emotional connection, at least on her end. Henry McCord was already making his presence known in a completely new way and Elizabeth wasn't sure how she felt about it.

Elizabeth was still staring out the window lost in her thoughts when Henry returned to the table with his coffee and a jumbo chocolate chip muffin. Sitting the plate between them, he asked, "Do you like muffins?"

She grinned. "I'm a big fan of all baked goods." Pulling a plastic knife from a cup at the edge of the table, she asked, "I cut, you choose?" Henry's facial expression of utter confusion made her giggle. "It's something my mom used to make my brother and I do. If we had to share something, one person got to divide it and then the other got to pick which half he or she wanted."

"Ah," Henry said, "I grew up in the land of 'you get what you get and you don't throw a fit!.' But there were four of us, so I guess that made a difference." He watched as Elizabeth cut the muffin. She had beautiful hands. He felt the need to reach out and touch them, but he decided that was entirely too forward.

Elizabeth looked up. "Choose," she said. Henry pointed and Elizabeth pushed the half toward him. "Three siblings, huh. Where are you in the line up?"

"I'm the oldest. Then Maureen, Shane and Erin with and E, not an A, a sister. Stairsteps, all about 2 years apart."

"I'm an oldest too. Will is 18 months younger. How did you become a religious studies major?"

"It seemed like the right path to take. When I graduate in a couple years, I'm going to seminary to get my Masters."

"Where?"

"St. Charles Borromeo Seminary just outside Philadelphia."

Elizabeth didn't know much about seminaries, but the Saint meant something. "That means you're-" Elizabeth started.

"Catholic," Henry finished.

"Oh." Elizabeth couldn't hide the surprise in her response, but she hoped he didn't see the disappointment. Of course, the guy I would pick to like is going to become a priest. That seems about right.

"That is, unless my calling changes." Henry said.

"That happens?" Elizabeth asked seriously.

"The process is long for that very reason. Every effort is taken to make sure that the priesthood is where you are supposed to be, so I think that's what I'm called to be, but I have several more years of discernment in front of me." Henry explained.

"That's very interesting." Elizabeth mused. Of course all I need is God pissed off at me that I stole one of his shepherds in training. Good grief, you don't even know if he likes you. Get a grip.

Over the next few hours, Henry and Elizabeth talked about the World Religions class, UVA, food on campus, life in the dorms and a multitude of other topics. The pair were unaware of the passage of time, wrapped up in their own world learning about the other. Finally when the coffee shop shut off a couple sets of lights in the back, Henry looked at his watch. "Oh my gosh. It's almost 8. I'm sorry to have kept you this long."

Elizabeth grinned at him. "You definitely didn't keep me. I didn't notice it was that late." As if on a timer, her stomach rumbled.

Henry laughed as Elizabeth blushed, "Looks like the muffin wore off." He paused for just a moment wondering how bold his thought might be. "Uh, would you be interested in catching a late dinner with me? There's a good pizza place a couple blocks away."

"Like a date?" she asked, tilting her head a bit to the side.

"Oh my gosh, you have a boyfriend! I certainly don't want to step in the middle of something. I'll be happy to walk you back to the dorm." Henry was backpedaling furiously, stumbling over his words and inwardly pummeling himself for being so dumb. Of course she had a boyfriend!

Elizabeth laughed out loud, "Whoa. Calm down. I was just asking for clarification. Coffee to talk about religion can just be coffee and religion, but dinner afterwards might be construed as something more. I just want to know what I'm looking at here. And, no, there is no boyfriend. With the whole priesthood thing, can I assume there is no girlfriend?"

"No girlfriend here." Henry replied. Yet.

"Well then, If the offer still stands, I would love to get pizza with you. Then, maybe you could walk me back?" She looked up at him, hopeful.

Having placed their order, they selected a table near the back away from a large group of rowdy students who were celebrating the end of their midterms. Henry pulled the chair out for Elizabeth and then sat close to her instead of opposite her. She smiled shyly at Henry, her nerves suddenly getting the best of her. It had been quite a while since she went on a real date, and this felt much more important than any previous outing she'd been part of.

Henry grinned back at her. He couldn't believe that she had actually said yes. He thought their conversation went well earlier, but he'd been totally prepared to call it a good day and leave it as just that. But, she said yes to dinner and she had no boyfriend and she was looking at him, smiling. Those eyes. I will never get tired of looking into them.

"I have a confession to make." Elizabeth said suddenly, surprising herself. "I went to the study group last night with the express purpose of meeting you." She shifted her eyes away from him, wondering why she had shared that bit of information.

"You did?" She could hear the smile in his words. "Really? Why?"

"Professor Edwards alluded to you being really smart, and I read your article in the student newspaper, which was really good, by the way. Well, you just sounded like someone who would be worth my time."

"What does worth your time mean exactly?" Elizabeth certainly didn't come off as a primadona, but her statement sort of lent itself to that.

"Just that I don't want to spend my time dealing with a jerk whose only goal is to see how fast he can get in my pants. I want to be with someone who wants to spend time with me, so we get to know each other, to see where that leads."

Henry grinned, "So my potential intelligence and a newspaper article in which I essentially said that my family was poor and coming to college was really hard, lends me to being a guy you want to know. You are an enigma."

"It piqued my interest enough to come and see for myself."

"And my riveting lecturing about the generalities of religion convinced you?"

"No, but the discussion about the Crusades did. I heard you on my way in."

"Eavesdropping, were you?" Henry teased.

"You certainly weren't trying to be quiet. It was quite the passionate speech you gave." Henry could tell that Elizabeth was being sincere. "Then I watched you teach that group. You have a gift, you know."

"A gift?" he asked.

"For imparting knowledge so that others can understand. The ability to teach is a gift. Especially a subject that doesn't have widespread popularity. You had the full attention of the whole group, start to finish." Elizabeth said. Henry blushed at the compliment. "I think everyone in that room walked out with knowledge that they didn't previously have."

"Except you. I watched you. You already knew everything I was saying, which made me wonder why you took the time away from other studies to come."

"I did learn something. It just wasn't about World Relgions."

"And that was?" Henry prodded.

"That I wanted to get to know you." Elizabeth said quietly.

"I didn't think you'd take me up on the coffee offer." Henry murmured. Just then the pizza arrived and then there was the shuffling of glasses and plates to make room for the large pan. Henry served Elizabeth before himself and they sat in silence for a few minutes eating, realizing just how hungry they'd become.

"Why?" she asked. Henry looked at her quizzically. "Why didn't you think I'd take you up on your offer?"

Wiping his mouth with a napkin before speaking, "Because girls like you don't go for guys like me."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Elizabeth had adopted an accusatory tone in her voice.

Henry didn't acknowledge the shift in her tone. He shrugged. "Elizabeth, you are brilliant, witty, and thoughtful, not to mention drop dead gorgeous. Me? I'm just average. You can have your pick of any guy, and I'm just not the guy that girls pick."

"I picked you.first, remember?" She laid her hand on top of his, sending shockwaves up his arm. "I don't see average Henry. I see a man who is wicked smart, caring, giving and very handsome." Henry looked in Elizabeth's eyes and saw nothing but sincerity. Suddenly he felt very warm and literally had to fight the urge to kiss her.

"That's very kind of you to say," he said, surprised by the unfamiliarity of his own voice.

Elizabeth smiled. "Are you going to eat that?" She pointed at a piece of pizza. Shaking his head no, Henry laughed. "I don't know that I've ever been out before that my date outate me."

"I like food. What can I say? And hey, I hadn't eaten since the half a muffin, and that was a long time ago."

Henry laughed again, "Neither did I. Besides, I like it. I don't want to be around someone who is faking who they are." He waited for her to finish. "It's getting late. Do you have a midterm tomorrow?"

"I only have a paper to turn in and it's already finished," she said. "Do you?" Henry shook his head no. "Do you want to take the long way back to the dorm?" Henry chuckled as he rose from the table.

Out on the sidewalk, they turned left instead of right, to walk through the park on their way back to the dorm. They walked side by side chatting about classes and professors and campus events. At some point, their fingers brushed as they walked. The next time it happened, Henry caught them in intertwined his with hers and they continued to walk and talk. He told her about his strained relationship with his father and his desire to escape what his father had predestined him to be. Elizabeth spoke of her parents death and the challenges she faced, living with her grandparents and the challenges she had with her brother. By the time they made their way to her door, she felt like this man knew almost everything about her. It scared and comforted her simultaneously.

Henry stood facing her and looked down at where their hands were joined and he felt as though Elizabeth was an extension of himself. He couldn't believe he had shared such personal things with someone he barely knew. Although, when he look at her, he did know her. She had shared herself too.

She met his gaze. "What are you thinking?" he asked.

"I'm deciding whether or not it would be too forward of me to ask you to kiss me," she whispered. "It is only our first date."

"Actually," he said, looking at his watch, "It's been almost 8 hours and we've had coffee, dinner and a walk. That's definitely worth two dates, if not three."

"Oh, well then in that case, would you-"

"Yes," he breathed. Letting go of her hand, he tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear before threading his fingers in her hair, cupping her head. Lowering his head, his lips gently brushed against hers before he took her top lip between his and sucked it gently. He was about to pull back, afraid of being too bold when Elizabeth ran her tongue along his bottom lip encouraging him to allow her access. She slipped one hand around his back and the other ran up his chest and around to the closely cropped hairs at the nape of his neck. Pressing into each other, their tongues played a game of cat and mouse until the need for oxygen overwhelmed them and they reluctantly pulled apart.

"That was-" she started, but Henry cut her off.

"Yeah, it was." Henry took her hand and brought it to his lip, gently kissing the back of it. "Goodnight Elizabeth. Sweet dreams."

He released her hand and turned to go. "Wait." He turned back to face her. "Goodnight Henry. Thank you for a wonderful evening."

"It was nice. Think we could do it again sometime?" Henry asked.

"I'm counting on it." Elizabeth replied and then she stepped into her room, closing the door behind her. "That was the best coffee I've ever had," she murmured to herself, placing her fingers to her lips, still holding on to the feeling of Henry's lips on hers. God might just have to get over the loss of a shepherd in training.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: In most of these early H/E fics, Elizabeth is portrayed as being more fragile, needing to be "put back together" by Henry. I'm trying out the idea of her being a strong personality to start with and even maybe being the more dominant in their relationship. We'll see where it goes.

Chapter 3

Elizabeth threw on a t-shirt and pajama shorts before she went down the hall to the bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth. As she was walking back down the hallway, she heard her phone ringing. She jogged the last few steps into her room and picked up the phone just before the answering machine clicked on. "Hello?"

"It's about damn time." Kate said. "Do you know how many times I've called? Like twelve."

"Sorry. I just got home a few minutes ago. I haven't even looked at my messages yet."

"You just now got home?" Kate wailed. "From coffee? That was like eight hours ago."

"Yeah. From coffee. We had a nice time." Elizabeth answered, not really willing to share much. She liked Kate, but Kate also had loose lips and she didn't want her personal life be the topic of tomorrow's cafeteria conversation .

"Sounds like more than a nice time to me."

"We had coffee. We talked. We ate pizza. He walked me home. That is the only version you get." Elizabeth said, her voice measured and somewhat tight.

"Fine then. Party pooper! You know I live vicariously through other people." Kate pouted.

"Well, I suggest that you live through other people." There was a beep in the background. "Hey Kate, I've got another call. I'll see you tomorrow. Bye." She swapped lines. "Hello?"

"Hi Elizabeth. It's Henry."

"Hey there." A smile spread across Elizabeth's face. "What are you doing?"

"Well, it's kind of embarrassing to tell you the truth." he said and she could hear the uncertainty in his voice.

"Okay. What is it?" she giggled, "Oh God, I sound like I'm in junior high, giggling at a boy calling."

"That actually makes me feel a little better. I called just because I wanted to hear your voice one more time before I go to sleep. That makes me needy doesn't it?"

"It's sweet. I was just talking about you." Elizabeth said.

"You were?" Henry asked.

"Well, kind of. My friend, Kate, called to find out all of the details of our date. I wouldn't tell her anything and your call actually gave me a great reason to hang up on her, so thank you."

"You're more than welcome. I don't really need anything, but I did want to tell you that I had a great time tonight."

"Do you want to have lunch with me tomorrow?" Elizabeth offered, surprised at her own forwardness.

"I'd love that. My class isn't over until noon, so I can meet you somewhere."

"I'm done at 11, so if you want, you can swing by my room and then we can go to the cafeteria?"

"Sounds great. I'll see you then."

"Goodnight."

"Bye."

Elizabeth fell back on her bed and laughed. Henry had called her just to say goodnight. Smiling, she closed her eyes and thought on that. Under normal circumstances that would seem suffocating and, as Henry put it, needy. However, she didn't feel that way about Henry at all. It was endearing and filled her with a homey warmth that she hadn't felt in a long time. And that kiss, well that filled her with an altogether different warmth. Elizabeth felt that warmth return as she recreated the kiss in her mind. Before she knew it, her mind lead her beyond the kiss to the exploration. The undressing. The touching. A loud moan escaped her mouth. Elizabeth shot up off the bed, and she blushed at her own aroused state. "Oh hell," she muttered. "I'm not going to be able to sleep now.

Rising from the bed, she changed her panties, grabbed a water bottle from the mini fridge and picked up her Calculus book. She sighed, "Might as well be productive if I'm going to be up." She plopped herself down the bean bag in the corner and got to work.

The persistent buzzing roused Elizabeth from her slumber the next morning. It seemed so far away. Opening her eyes, she realized the buzzing was far away because she had never made it to bed. She was slumped sideways in the bean bag, her head pressed against the concrete block wall. Rolling off the bean bag, Elizabeth lumbered over to the alarm clock and smacked the snooze button to silence it. Picking her glasses up off of the floor, she eyed the clock.

"Shit!" she exclaimed. The clock had been going off for over 45 minutes and she was officially late. Throwing off her pajamas, she grabbed whatever she could from her closet. T-shirt, yesterday's jeans, shoes, socks deemed too time consuming at this point. Sweatshirt over the tee. She hoped that would camoflauge the missing undergarment. Out the door she flew, arriving to her class out of breath and only 2 minutes late. Of course she had 9 and 10 o'clock classes back to back, and she needed to pee something fierce. She sat in the back of the room cursing that water bottle she picked up before she started studying the night before.

When her class was finally released ten minutes before 11, she practically hurdled three people to get out the door to the ladies' room. Emerging a few minutes later, feeling much better, Elizabeth noticed Henry leaning against the opposite wall grinning at her. "Feeling okay?" he asked.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes at him and smiled, trying to mask her embarrassment that he was waiting for her outside of the bathroom. "What are you doing here? I thought you had an 11 o'clock class."

"It got canceled. I walked over to catch you, thinking we could have lunch early. Of course I barely see a blur weaving through the crowd. I thought I'd just hang out and wait."

Elizabeth laughed. "It's been a crazy morning. I woke up late and was late to class. After back to back classes, I really needed to use the bathroom. Anyway, going to lunch early is fine. I just need to stop by my room first."

"Sure. Let's go." Henry started up the stairs.

"Wait," she said. Henry turned around and stepped back down the couple steps he had just climbed.

"What?" he asked.

"You forgot something," she grinned, but Henry looked confused. Elizabeth looked over her shoulder to make sure they were indeed alone. "You forgot this." She stepped closer and reached out linking fingers with Henry, pulling him closer. Henry caught on. He too, glanced around to make sure the hallway was empty. He lowered his head until his lips met hers. He deepened the kiss and she eagerly reciprocated, their tongues playfully touching as the telltale warmth made itself known down low in her core.

Before her rational thoughts dissolved, she pulled back and watched Henry open his eyes. She saw her own emotions reflected back at her. The affection beginning to take root, the curiosity to learn about the other and the underlying lust. He smiled at her, brushing his fingers along her jaw and kissed her forehead. "Let's go," he said, rearranging the way their fingers were linked, but not losing contact. Elizabeth walked with him and made a mental note to buy more panties. She was going through them at an alarming rate lately.

Back at the dorm, Elizabeth had Henry wait in the downstairs lounge while she ran upstairs to finish dressing. Putting on new panties, bra and socks, she brushed through her hair and pulled it up. She ran down to the bathroom and brushed her teeth before returning to put on a bit of fresh makeup. "Much better," she said to herself and grabbed her purse before heading downstairs to meet Henry.

Popping in the doorway to the lounge, she said. "All ready for lunch."

Henry's look of confusion was evident. "You didn't change," he commented.

"Uh, I added some things I missed the first time." Elizabeth blushed and wondered if Henry would figure out exactly what she'd been missing. He didn't seem to pick up on it though. "Let's go. I'm starving."

"How many times do you say that in a day?" he asked jokingly.

She laughed, "Probably 5 or 6. I'm a much happier person when I'm not hungry. The people around me would agree."

As they walked the block to the dining hall, Henry slipped his hand into hers and they talked about their tests for the rest of the week. With both being free that afternoon, they decided that they would meet in the library to study.

They entered the cafeteria and Elizabeth furrowed her brow. She hadn't thought of the fallout of bringing Henry with her to lunch. She didn't want to sit at her regular table. She wanted to sit with Henry and talk to him, but she knew that Kate and the others would end up coming over and inserting themselves in the middle of their lunch. Henry felt her tense next to him. "What's wrong?"

Elizabeth sighed. "It's ridiculous. I want to have lunch with you, but my friends are totally going to intrude. I don't want to be hateful about it, but if I don't, we won't get any peace. Then there will be this whole thing with them. Whatever, I'm being dumb. They can just get over it."

"Hold on," Henry said. "I think I can solve our problem." He disappeared down a side hall. She wasn't sure where he was going as she'd never been past the main entrance. A few minutes later he returned. "We'll be dining in the side room today-alone," he grinned.

"There's a side room? How'd you pull that off?" she asked.

"I worked with Marco my freshman year. I just asked if we could use the room. It wasn't too hard."

"Thank you. I hope I didn't sound all weird. I like my friends, but sometimes they just like to be in everyone's business, and I don't want them in my business. I don't know if we," she gestured to Henry then herself, "will end up being a thing, but I'd like for us to find that out without others putting their two cents in. Does that make sense?"

"It actually makes very good sense. I would have had the same kind of situation a couple years ago, but luckily now most of my friends are already paired off or so deep in their own lives that they don't care much to pry in anyone else's. Of course, no one is really trying to mess with your love life if they think you're going to be a priest." Elizabeth laughed.

"A unique situation for sure." She reached out and playfully patted his chest, "Come on. I'm starving." She reached for his hand and pulled them into the cafeteria to get in line. They got their food and he led them down the side hall near the entrance. About halfway down the hall was a set of oak French doors, which were propped open. Inside was a long oak table which seated 30, Elizabeth guessed. Plush carpet, heavy blue drapes pulled back with white sheers under them. One end of the room housed a large china cabinet filled with beautiful crystal glassware. The other end had a matching cabinet holding a set of dishes. "This is beautiful. How did I not know this existed?"

"It's only used for dinners held by the President of the College and visiting lecturers. My freshman year, my work study job was waiter at these kind of events."

"That sounds fun." They sat down and had a wonderful lunch talking about old jobs, Elizabeth's boarding school, riding horses and other things. Marco stuck his head in the room. "Hey Henry, I hate to break up the party, but I have to set up for a meeting tonight."

"Oh, no problem. Thanks Marco." Henry looked at his watch. "Holy cow! It's almost 2. I hope I didn't make you miss anything."

"I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have cared if I did." Elizabeth said and she picked up her tray and carried it into the now empty cafeteria to deposit it at the dishwashing station.


	4. Chapter 4

AN: Sorry the update took so long. I had trouble picking a direction for this to go. I think there might end up being an interesting dynamic between Elizabeth and Henry's mom that we don't usually see. Hope you like it. Thanks for the kind reviews. Words of encouragement are always appreciated, and I don't mind ideas to make my writing better. I'd love to hear your thoughts, so please review.

Chapter 4

For the next month, Henry and Elizabeth continued to see each other. They spoke on the phone, ate lunch together, went to the movies, took walks and a couple of times woke up next to each other in the morning having fallen asleep watching TV together in Elizabeth's dorm lounge. There hadn't been a day that passed since they met that night in October that the two hadn't been together for at least a few hours.

Now, it was the Monday afternoon before Thanksgiving and Elizabeth was packed and ready to go home to her grandparents on their farm in southern Virginia. Henry was leaving the following morning to go to his home in Pittsburgh. It would be six days before they saw each other again, and they stood before each other in the lounge of Henry's dorm, Elizabeth's car left running in the no parking zone out front. "I hope you have a nice visit with your family," Henry said.

"Yeah, you too." Elizabeth took a deep breath and exhaled quickly. "I'm already missing you."

"Yeah. I feel the same way. You have the phone number for my parents' house, right?" Henry asked, reaching out and grasping her fingers.

"Uh huh. It's in my purse. You have mine too?" Elizabeth took a step closer to Henry. She was close enough that he felt her breath fan across his face as she spoke.

"Yeah. I'll be back Sunday afternoon. I'll call when I get back on campus and we'll eat dinner together," he said.

"Let's plan on that. God, this is so much harder than I thought it would be. I feel like I'm being so dumb." She leaned into Henry and pressed a kiss to his lips. Before she could pull back, Henry snaked his arms around her back and held her prisoner against his body. Sinking his tongue into her mouth, she nipped at it and he moaned. He felt Elizabeth's lips curl into a smile against his mouth, and pulled away.

"You aren't. I'm feeling things with you that I've never felt before. I don't think it's dumb at all." He pushed the few stray hairs behind her ear and ran his thumb along her cheek. "Drive safe Elizabeth," he said. "I'll see you Sunday."

Elizabeth pressed her hands to Henry's chest and pecked his lips one more time. I'll see you Sunday," she whispered and then pushed off of him and went out the door.

Elizabeth made the hour drive back to her grandparents' house. She pulled into the house at 2PM. Will was still in school, her grandfather, Joseph Adams, was at work, and who even knew where her grandmother was. She couldn't keep up with Grandma Elaine's charity work. Having some alone time was completely okay with Elizabeth. She carried baskets of her laundry to the laundry room and started the first load. Then she ran up to her room and changed into her riding clothes. Stopping by the kitchen, she picked up a banana for herself and a handful of carrots before heading to the barn. Making her way down the stalls, she gave each horse a carrot. She stopped at her horse's stall. "Buttercup! How are you boy?" She leaned in and hugged the horse's neck. "You wanna ride? Come on." Elizabeth fed her horse a carrot and opened the stall door. She saddled him and led him out of the barn. The air was cold, but the sun was shining and the ground hadn't frozen yet. Elizabeth smiled widely and mounted her horse. Nudging his sides, they took off down the drive before she diverted them through the open gate and into the pasture. "Come on boy. Let's go!" Buttercup took off with Elizabeth.

They galloped for a long while. Elizabeth finally slowed Buttercup down to a trot. As they rode, Elizabeth told Buttercup all about her friends, her classes and Henry. They made a wide loop and rode back into the barn a couple hours later. After brushing and feeding Buttercup and wiping down the tack, Elizabeth went back to the house to meet up with Will and her grandmother.

Together, the three chatted while they all prepared dinner and had it ready to put on the table when Elizabeth's grandfather arrived home from work. The four sat at the table and talked about their days and what Will had been doing in school and what charity Elaine had been working with. Elizabeth talked about her classes and upcoming finals. She thought about telling her family about Henry, but decided against it, thinking that they were too new, even though her heart ached longed for him. After dinner, the family played a game of Scrabble and got ready for bed early, and Elizabeth was thankful.

She had just climbed into bed when there was a knock at her door. "Come in," she said, as she reached over and turned on the lamp on the bedside table.

"Hey Lizzie." It was Grandma Elaine. "How are you doing?"

"I'm okay. What's up?" Elizabeth asked.

"So,who is he?"

"Who's who?" Elizabeth asked, wondering if she really knew and how she knew.

"Come on. You took Buttercup out for a long ride. You didn't say much at dinner and during Scrabble, we had to tell you it was your turn five times in an hour. So, who is he?"

Elizabeth smiled shyly. "Okay, there is someone, but we haven't been dating long, so I didn't want to bring him up in case, you know."

"You know, what?" Elaine asked.

Elizabeth made a face. "In case we decide to go our separate ways. I don't' need my family questioning every move I make."

Elaine laughed. "He's special. I can tell by how you light up when you talk about him. Even when you talk about maybe breaking up with him." Elizabeth blushed.

"You're a little too observant. You know that?" she said, half joking, half not. "What do you want to know?"

"Oh come on. Just stuff. Girl talk isn't very fun when I have to drag it out of you."

"Alright fine," Elizabeth began. "His name is Henry Patrick McCord. I thought I might like him before I even met him. He was holding this study session for midterms and our religion professor said he'd never received less than an A."

"So he's smart then." Elained confirmed.

"Yes, very. He's a junior, a religious studies major and he's articulate both in writing and when speaking. He's an excellent communicator and there's something about his voice. To be honest, I was so intrigued by him before we even met, that looks were a non issue." Elizabeth felt like her grandma had pushed the floodgate open and now she couldn't stop talking about Henry.

"So looks don't matter?"

"Well, no. Looks don't matter, but he is very handsome." Elizabeth giggled. "I totally sound like I'm in junior high, pining after the cute basketball star or something. Anyway, Henry is very nice looking. He's tall, maybe 6' 2" and very muscular. He's in ROTC, so he has to work out quite a bit. He has sandy brown hair and brown eyes. He's so kind and considerate. He just makes it easy to be open. I told him all about mom and dad on our first date, and he wasn't freaked out. He was really supportive and shared things about his relationship with his dad that are tough and he's just so easy to talk to."

"He sounds like a great guy. Why are you so hesitant about it working out?" Elaine inquired.

"Henry's life path might make dating me a little dicey." Elaine frowned. Elizabeth took a deep breath and continued. "He is discerning the priesthood."

"Whoa, yeah. I don't suppose we're talking an Episcopal priest?"

"Nope. Catholic all the way."

"I can see where having a girlfriend may be problematic. Why is he even dating it he's going to be a priest?"

"It's all part of discerning your vocation. He has to live his life to be sure that the priesthood is the direction he wants to go."

"Sounds like you may be the one that gets hurt in this equation." Elaine commented, taking Elizabeth's hand. "You need to approach this with caution."

"I know. It's easier said than done though. I tell myself that, but then I'm with him, I can't see anything beyond the two of us. Together." Elizabeth was a little shocked at her own words. She'd never voiced her feelings for Henry out loud. It scared her, if she were honest with herself.

"Grandma, did you ever think you were in love and weren't?"

"Once, but I was very young and loved him for all the wrong reasons. He broke my heart, but when I met your grandfather, I knew right away that he was the real deal. Have you talked to Henry about it?"

"Not yet. We've only been seeing each other a little over a month. I didn't want to scare him with that kind of talk," Elizabeth said.

"Well, I don't know him at all, but I do know you. The longer you wait, the more invested you will become. It isn't fair to you, to let yourself fall head over heels for this guy if he knows he has no intention of a long term commitment. I think it helps that he's older than you. Theoretically, he's more mature. If he's seriously thinking about becoming a priest, he will surely not want to lead you on." Elaine was talking more to herself than Elizabeth, but these were all thoughts that Elizabeth had had at some point as well.

"You know I love you, right?" Elizabeth asked.

"Yes, Lizzie girl, and I love you too. Are you going to talk to him?" Elaine asked.

"Definitely. I just need to decide if I'm going to do it over break when he calls or when we get back and do it face to face."

"If it were me, I'd go with face to face, just because you can miss things like body language when you are talking on the phone. This isn't really a conversation where you want to have a misunderstanding."

Elizabeth nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly. "I think I'm ready for bed now. Love you Grandma, and thanks for talking me through it."

"Love you too Lizzie. Good night."

The next morning, Elizabeth emerged lazily out of her slumber, but refused to open her eyes. She hoped she would be able to drift back off. She was dreaming about Henry and she didn't want it to end. After laying still for a few more minutes, she knew she wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep. Finally she exhaled and opened her eyes. It hadn't even been a whole 24 hours yet and she missed him terribly.

Elizabeth sat up and crossed her legs in the middle of her bed. Her grandma had said some things the previous evening that worried her. How serious was Henry about the priesthood? He sure didn't kiss her like he wanted to be a priest. She blinked hard. Even thinking about it took her breath away. He said he had feelings that he'd never had before. Did he have the same feelings for her, that she had for him? Yes, she most definitely needed to talk to him over dinner Sunday night. Rolling out of bed, she picked her riding pants back on, tossed on a t-shirt with a sweatshirt over it and headed out to the barn. A ride would do her good.

She returned close to lunch and found that she'd missed a call from Henry. Since it was lunch time, she decided that she would wait a bit to return the call. She didn't want to interrupt a family meal.

Her family had a quick lunch and separated into their own spaces to get a few of their own things done. Elizabeth settled down on the couch in the living room to do some reading for class. She didn't get much done because she kept checking the time. At 2, she decided she could safely call Henry and not be in the middle of anything.

She unhooked the phone from the wall in the kitchen and moved it to the dining room where she pulled out a chair and got comfortable. She pulled Henry's number from her jeans pocket and dialed it. She was uncharacteristically nervous as the phone rang on the other end of the line.

"Hello," came a woman's voice on the other end of the line.

"Is this the McCord's?" Elizabeth asked.

"It is."

"Hi. Is Henry there?"

"Is this Elizabeth?" The woman's voice was short and had taken on a certain level of coldness.

"Yes ma'am. Uh, Mrs McCord. Henry called me earlier and I was returning his call."

"He's gone." Mrs. McCord replied. Elizabeth felt the chill come through the phone line and she shivered.

"Okay. Can you please let him know that I returned his call? Happy Thanks-" The line went dead. "giving," she finished as she let the phone receiver drop in her lap. Elizabeth sat stunned, glued to her spot for quite a while. The persistent buzzing of the phone brought Elaine Adams into the dining room.

"Lizzie," she said and when Elizabeth didn't respond, Elaine placed her hand on Elizabeth's shoulder. "Lizzie, what's wrong?" Elizabeth placed the receiver back in the cradle and looked up at the older lady. "I don't know why, but Henry's mom hates me." With that, the tears that had been welling up, overflowed down her cheeks and a sob came bubbling up and out.

Elaine pulled a chair close and took Elizabeth's hands. "Lizzie, I doubt that is the case. Have you ever met Mrs. McCord? What would make you say that?"

The sobs just kept coming. "I-I-I just talked t-t-to her," Elizabeth finally got out.

"Shh, honey, Come here. Let's go sit in the living room and talk this out.

Elaine led Elizabeth to the couch in the living room and they sat down next to each other Elizabeth buried her head in her grandmother's shoulder. "I don't know what I did. I just returned Henry's call and when she knew it was me, her voice completely changed and she said he wasn't there and she hung up on me."

"Hold on before you go too far down this path. Maybe it isn't you. Maybe something else happened. You have no idea what happened before you called. Just try to calm down. Henry will call and then you can talk about it, alright? I know you know how it sounded, but that doesn't necessarily mean what you think it means."

Elizabeth took a shuddering breath and wiped her eyes. "Okay. I'll hope that it was just bad timing. If not, I can't imagine what I would have done to make her dislike me when I haven't met her." She rested her elbows on her knees, hands clasped together and rocked gently back and forth. "I wonder if she will even tell him that I called."

"Stop that," Elaine called from the kitchen where she was making them both some tea. "Speculation will only cause you to worry."

Elizabeth begrudgingly agreed as she took the cup of steaming tea from her grandmother. "I will relax and not worry about it," she said, forcing herself to sit back in the chair and attempt to relax.

Several hours passed and Elizabeth worked on her studies, visited Buttercup and the other horses, and helped Will prepare dinner. The four had just sat down to to a late dinner when the phone rang. Elizabeth looked pleadingly at her grandmother who would normally refuse to let anyone answer the phone during a meal. She barely nodded and Elizabeth was up and in the kitchen grabbing the phone. "Hello?" It was a question more than a greeting.

"Hey babe," Henry said.

Elizabeth was so relieved to hear Henry's voice that she slid down the wall and sat cross legged on the floor. "I wasn't sure you'd call back," she said.

"Of course I would. Umm, we need to talk." Elizabeth's heart started beating wildly. She was afraid that he was going to tell her something terrible.

"What is it?" she asked. Henry felt bad. He could sense the tension in her voice.

"Do you think I could come and see you?"

"What? You're in Pittsburgh."

"I left. I'm back at school."

"What? Why?" Elizabeth's mind was reeling. "Are you okay? Is this why your mom is mad?"

Henry let out a shaky breath. "You talked to my mom?"

"Only briefly before she hung up on me."

"Shit. I'm sorry babe. Look, she's mad at me. I'm sorry she took it out on you."

"Anyway, can I come see you?"

"Now?" she asked him, trying to figure out what had happened and what might be happening.

"I really need to talk to you and I would prefer to do it in person." Henry's voice was near pleading.

"Just a second. Let me check on something. Don't go anywhere, okay?"

"Alright."

Elizabeth stuck her head back into the dining room. "Grandma can I talk to you for a minute?" Elaine gave her granddaughter curious look, but excused herself from the table.

"Are you alright Lizzie? You look like you might be ill."

"I might be. I don't know. Henry left his parents' house and he's back at school. He wants to know if he can come to see me. He said he needs to talk to me and he needs to do it in person. Can he come?"

"It's late. Can he come tomorrow?"

"Truthfully, I don't know that I will be able to sleep if I don't know what's going on. If he's going to end things, I want to get it over with and if he's not, I need to know that too." Elaine didn't look convinced. "Grandma, he left his family on Thanksgiving, to come back and stay in the dorms. Something big had to have happened."

"Fine. But tell him to pack a bag. He's not leaving here in the middle of the night to drive back to school."

"Thank you Grandma. I love you!" She gave her grandma a quick hug and picked up the phone that was dangling by the cord against the kitchen wall. "Henry? Sorry to keep you waiting, but I had to make sure it was okay with my grandparents. You can come, but Grandma said you had to bring a bag because she wasn't letting you drive back so late."

Henry chuckled. "I think all grandmas must be the same!" Elizabeth gave him directions and Henry said he would leave right away.

Elizabeth couldn't bring herself to eat, but instead paced the floor in front of the living room window for the next hour and ten minutes. She was physically ill by the time she saw headlights turn and head down their long drive.

She tugged her heavy coat on and grabbed a big quilt from the quilt rack in the entryway and taking a deep breath, she headed outside into the chilly night air. She tossed the quilt on the porch swing and stood on the top step of the front porch and waited for Henry to pull up and get out of the car.

The car stopped suddenly when he shoved the gear shift into park before the car had come to a complete stop. Leaping out of the car, Henry was up the steps and pulled her into his embrace before she was able to speak. "I missed you so much."

"Henry, I missed you too, but it's not even been two days yet. What is going on?"

"It's a long story," Henry began.

"Come on." She took his hand and directed him toward the porch swing. He helped her unfold the quilt. They sat down and wrapped it around themselves. "Okay, so what happened?"

"Well, after you left yesterday, I couldn't stop thinking about you. About me. And about us." Henry looked away from her. "I didn't plan on this happening. It wasn't supposed to happen. You were pretty and smart. God you are so smart. It was just coffee, right? What could that hurt? Then I found out how funny you are and strong and you are so easy to talk to." Henry was still looking over her shoulder instead of at her, purposely .

"What are you trying to say Henry?" she asked.

"I tried to sleep last night and I couldn't. I just kept thinking of how it would be a lie to go home and play the part I was supposed to play and be a different person here with you. I couldn't stand laying there thinking about it anymore and finally got up. I left at 3AM to go to Pittsburgh. I drove straight through and was sitting on Father Mark's doorstep this morning." Henry spoke almost as if it were painful to remember it. Elizabeth reached out and took his hand in hers, letting him know she was there, but waiting for him to finish.

"We talked for a long time. He helped me sort some things out. Then I went home to talk to my parents. That's when it all went south. I tried to explain, but they wouldn't hear it. My mom especially, I don't know that I've ever seen her so angry. Lots of things were said, and I had enough. I left. I drove around town awhile trying to calm down, but as I calmed down, I realized I couldn't go back. At least, I couldn't go back yet. I just came back to school. I didn't know what else to do."

Elizabeth just sat there. She felt like she was missing a key piece to this puzzle, but she wasn't sure what exactly was going on. "I'm definitely missing something. If you got everything worked out with Father Mark, why are your parents so upset?"

He looked Elizabeth in the eye. "I ended the discernment process this morning. Well, I guess I should say that I finished the discernment process this morning. I decided not to pursue to the priesthood. Father Mark understands why. My parents, however, do not."

"Oh. Henry are you sure? That is a huge decision. One not to be taken lightly."

Henry ran his thumbs over her knuckles, "I know. I didn't take it lightly. I've been praying about it since I first saw you in the study group. It was just in the wee hours of the night, I realized that when I went home, I would have to pretend to be someone I was not anymore. I didn't want to do that. I didn't want to lie or lead them on." He shook his head sadly, and let our a sharp laugh. "It appears that the term discernment means something different to my mother, who was already planning my ordination."

"Give her time. Give them both time, Henry. Look how long it took you to come to the conclusion. You just sprung it on your parents. It had to be quite the shock. They'll need some time to get used to the idea. It will be okay. They love you. They'll come around." Elizabeth leaned in with the intention of hugging Henry, but he took the opportunity to kiss her instead.

"I definitely missed that," he said and grinned at her.

"What exactly does this mean for us then?" Elizabeth wanted to know. So, he wasn't going to become a priest. That didn't necessarily mean she would be in the long term picture. She wanted to believe that was the case, but wasn't going to make that assumption.

"Truthfully?" Henry took a deep breath. "It means that I'm falling for you. It doesn't matter what scene plays out in my head, you are in it. If I imagine tomorrow, you are there. Five years from now, it's you beside me, and in 50 years, it's our kids and grandkids, with you and I in the center of it all." He studied Elizabeth, trying to gauge her reaction. "How much does that scare you?"

"I'd be lying if I said it didn't scare me at all, but I feel much the same way. It makes me uncomfortable that you ditched the priesthood thing for me though. What if we don't work out?"

"I don't think that will happen," Henry answered. "But, even if it did, I don't know that I could go back. I prayed about it and really think my vocation is to be a husband, and someday a father."

"I think you'll be excellent at both." She smiled. "So how much does you mom hate me?"

"Oh, I don't know that she hates you. Perhaps she dislikes you right now because she thinks you caused this, but you didn't. It wasn't supposed to be and she'll figure that out in time," Henry said.

"I'm pretty sure that it's not just dislike. Once she figured out who I was, it got pretty icy on her end. Think she'll ever forgive me?" Elizabeth asked.

"She will. It just might take a few years."

Elizabeth laughed, "Well that's something to hold on to. Let's get inside and you can meet my grandparents. Will is probably already in bed."

"Sure, but first I need to do something." Henry scooted closer and slid his hand around to the small of her back pulling her in closer to him. "Let me kiss you." he whispered against her ear, his breath sending a shiver down her spine.

"Please," she practically begged. His lips brushed against her ear and along her jawline until he'd worked his way to her mouth. He kissed the corner of her mouth gently. Elizabeth parted her lips and he ran his tongue along the inside of her lip, grazing her teeth. Her need was great and he was being entirely too gentle. She ran her hands up his arms and to his head. She held him in place while she leaned in and buried her tongue in his mouth, exploring, tangling with his. Becoming breathless, she inhaled through her nose and let Henry take over. She smiled into the kiss thinking about how skilled Henry was with his tongue. Her thoughts immediately went to other areas where a skilled tongue could be useful. She embarrassed herself at her own thoughts and she pulled back from Henry blushing. "Let's go," she said.

Henry went back down to his car and grabbed his duffle from the back seat and then returned to stand by Elizabeth.

"Hey, wait. Do your parents know that you came back to Virginia?" Elizabeth was suddenly aware that they could be worried.

"No. I was mad enough that I didn't think they needed to know," he said.

"Well, they do. You never want to be in a position of waiting and wondering if your loved one is dead or not."

"I suppose."

"No. Really I know this for a fact. If you are still too mad to talk to them, I'll call, just to let them know you are safe."

They quickly folded their quilt and entered the house. It was warm and inviting. Elizabeth introduced Henry to her grandparents and Elaine told Elizabeth that she had prepared the guest room for Henry's use. Henry thanked her and the older couple headed off to bed. Elizabeth busied herself with shutting off the lights and locking the doors. Henry picked up his things and joined her in the kitchen.

"Are you calling or am I?" she asked before they headed upstairs. He sighed. Elizabeth pulled the number for Henry's parents from her pocket and dialed it.

"Hello?" the voice on the other end sounded both rattled and exhausted.

"Mrs. McCord." Elizabeth swore she could hear the woman's nostril flare on her end of the line.

"I just called to let you know that Henry showed up here about an hour ago. He's safe. I would have called sooner, but I wasn't aware that you didn't know his whereabouts until just a few minutes ago. I'm sorry you had to worry. Good night." She started to hang up and she heard the woman's reply.

"Thank you for calling and letting me know."

"You're welcome." Elizabeth hung up.

"That went a little better than I thought it might." She smiled at Henry. "At least she didn't hang up on me mid sentence this time." Surveying him, she said, "Let's get you to bed. You look exhausted," She pushed Henry up the stairs. Giving him a quick kiss, she left him by his door and she stepped into her own room, closing the door behind her.


	5. Chapter 5

AN: I'm taking suggestions on where I should end this. I feel like she at least has to meet the McCords, but then what. In my other stories, I usually have a specific point that I think is the culmination. This one, not so much. Reviews are appreciated.

Chapter 5

Elizabeth woke up early. Seeing Henry's door still closed, she made her way downstairs. Her grandfather was sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee. "Morning Pop-pop," she said, greeting him with kiss on the cheek. "Do you have to go into work today?" Stepping over to the counter and poured herself a cup of coffee.

"For a bit. I've got a meeting at 10. I'm hoping to be home by 1 or so. Do you want to help me clean the barn this afternoon?"

"Sure. I can do that." She poured the creamer into her cup, stuck it back in the fridge and sat down opposite him. "Oh, hey, I just thought of something. Would it be okay if Henry stays through the weekend with us?"

"You just thought of it. Really?" Joe Adams rolled his eyes at his granddaughter.

"Well, I just thought of it this morning." She grinned at him. "I just feel bad that he'll be in the dorms alone and have to eat cold cereal for Thanksgiving dinner."

"I don't care as long as Grandma says it's fine. She's the one who will be cooking extra food."

"Then I doubt it will be a problem. We eat Thanksgiving leftovers for days as it is." Elizabeth chuckled. "I haven't even asked him if he wants to stay yet. I just thought it would be nice to offer."

"Sounds good. He can help muck the stalls this afternoon. We'll introduce him to the Adams clan the right way. Sweat and manure." he laughed.

"I love you Pop-pop." She leaned over his chair and hugged him from behind. " I'll see you this afternoon at the barn." Elizabeth scurried up the stairs to see if Henry was awake yet. The door was still shut so she tapped lightly. There was no answer, so she went to ask her Grandma if Henry could stay and then went to her room, got dressed and stuck a note to the wall opposite Henry's door letting him know where she would be before she headed to the barn.

About half an hour later, Henry walked into the barn. "Elizabeth," he called out. She popped her head up from one of the far stalls.

"Hey, sleepyhead. Come here." Henry walked down to the stall where Elizabeth was working. "Have you ever been around horses?" she asked.

"Not other than pony rides when I was maybe five," he said. "Is that safe?" Elizabeth was on her knees at the side of one of the mares.

"Not with all horses, but this one's fine. She was limping. there is a rock wedged in her horseshoe. It bruises her foot. I'm just prying it out." Henry watched as Elizabeth used a tool that looked like a one prong garden rake to get under the rock and pop it out. "There we are Beauty. You'll be good to go in a couple days." She stood and walked over to lean against the stall gate. "Got big plans for the weekend?" she asked.

"Ha ha, very funny. I think I just blew up my holiday plans for the next couple years," Henry said, his voice taking on a solemn tone.

"Hopefully not years. Let's hope it's just this Thanksgiving and by Christmas you'll have everything worked out." She placed her hands on top of his hands, which were resting on the stall door.

Henry let out a sharp laugh, full of sarcasm, not joy. "You must not be very familiar with the stubbornness of the Irish Catholic."

Elizabeth grinned, "Start praying then I guess." That brought a smile to Henry's face. Elizabeth wasn't overtly religious, so he always found it amusing when she told him to pray. "Would you like to stay the weekend here? It will just be the four of us, and you are welcome to join."

"I wouldn't want to intrude on your family time," Henry said.

"It wouldn't be an intrusion. I invited you and it will be better than cold cereal alone in your dorm room." She smiled encouragingly. "Come on. You can go riding with me."

"I'm not sure that is much of an inducement, but as long as you are sure it's okay with your family, then I'm in."

"Yes!" she squealed causing Beauty to neigh loudly and whip her head around.

Stepping out of the stall, Elizabeth pecked Henry on the lips. "You have to meet Buttercup." Grasping his hand, she pulled him to her horse's stall. "Buttercup. This is Henry. Henry, Buttercup." She pulled the horse close and nuzzled his neck.

"That's a first. I've never been formally introduced to a horse before." Henry laughed. "It's very nice to meet you Buttercup." The horse snorted and put his nose against Henry's chest. Henry took a step back.

"He's saying hi," she said. "So, do you want to ride?"

"Oh, that may be a little much," he said.

"Come on. I'll teach you," she leaned forward and whispered, "If you are going to have much of a future with me, you're going to have to at least be comfortable with horses. Now's the perfect time to start." She smiled so brightly that Henry wouldn't dare refuse her.

"Okay, so what do I do?" he asked. Elizabeth showed him all around and he watched as Elizabeth expertly saddled the more gentle mare, Maisy, slipped the bridle over her head, and gave Henry the reins to hold while she saddled Buttercup. She led Henry to the side of the round ring and pulled the mare alongside.

"Scale the panel and then it will be easy to swing your leg over. We'll work on mounting another day. I want to ride." Henry did as he was told and although it was slightly awkward, he managed to get into the saddle without too much trouble. "You're doing great. Now hold onto the reins like this. She threaded them through his fingers. "All set. Now just nudge her sides a little with your feet and she'll take off walking." The horse took off at a steady pace. Henry was terrified at first, but slowly got accustomed to the horse's rhythm and began to get a little more comfortable. After the first half mile or so, Elizabeth asked, "How are you doing?"

"I'm getting the hang of it. Slowly," he answered, still very focused on the task of staying upright in the saddle.

"Do you think you're ready to go a little faster?"

"What? I have to go faster?" Henry looked stunned. Elizabeth laughed.

"Just letting you know there are other speeds. You just let Maisy set your pace. She'll go like this forever. I'm going to run Buttercup. Be back in a few minutes." She rubbed Buttercup's neck and whispered, "Let's go boy." and like a shot they took off galloping across the pasture. Henry was mesmerized at the graceful silhouette of the pair in the distance. His breath caught in his throat when he realized that Buttercup, and Elizabeth, were headed straight for the fence, but before he could even formed a coherent thought about it, horse and rider sailed over the fence and landed easily on the other side. Elizabeth circled Buttercup around and jumped the fence again and within a minute was back beside Henry. "That's better." she said.

"That was amazing," Henry said, catching his own breath. "How did you learn to do that?"

"I took riding lessons for a while and then I just practiced. It wasn't really like practicing though when I enjoyed it so much. My love of horses is about the only good thing that came as a result of my parents' death. We used to come here sporadically when I was young and I loved to watch them, but we never really got a chance to do much else. Moving here after the accident, Pop-pop started me riding. It was therapeutic. I spent a lot of time riding in circles around the round pen just talking to Buttercup, crying and talking some more. I messed around with steeplechase in high school and was decent. It gave us something to do, isn't that right Buttercup?" She patted the horse's neck and continued, "It's just so freeing. When we are at a dead run, my mind can only focus on what is happening in that moment, the pounding of his hooves against the ground and the wind in my face. I don't know. It sounds silly when I say it, but I always feel better after I ride. Buttercup and I have ridden hundreds of miles together and there isn't anything that happens in my life that Buttercup doesn't know about.

"Does Buttercup know about me?" Henry asked, his voice uncharacteristically unsure.

Elizabeth blushed and smiled, her eyes twinkling, "Of course." Henry grinned, his cheeks taking on a pink hue as well. They rode on in silence. Thoughts and worries bounced around in Elizabeth's head like a bottle tossed into the ocean. "Henry," their eyes met. "Are you sure you made the right decision? It's coincidental that you made your decision yesterday. I was planning on bringing it up Sunday night when we had dinner."

"Bringing what up exactly?" Henry asked.

"Just that if the priesthood was still a serious possibility, I needed to know that up front, so I could, I don't know, maybe try not to get too attached." She laughed at the absurdity of what she just said. "Like that ship hadn't already sailed."

"Yes. I made the right decision. Now, the real question is will you want to date a guy that is just a guy and not a potential priest. I know that added an element of attractiveness, that not many other guys have."

Elizabeth laughed, "You're a dork. I guess it's lucky that I find dorks very attractive." She suddenly remembered her promise to help her grandfather. "Oh shoot! What time is it?"

"Almost noon." Henry answered.

"We need to get back. We have to grab some lunch before we meet Pop-pop to clean the barn. They swung the horses back in the direction of the barn. "Come on Maisy. Match Buttercup girl." Elizabeth watched Henry tense. "Relax, go with the feel of it. Your body will match the rhythm if you let it. That's it."

"So why do you call your grandfather, Pop-pop?" Elizabeth laughed and shrugged. "Well, my mom called her dad pop and when I was learning to talk, I picked up on that and I started calling him Pop-pop and it stuck."

"That's a cute story," Henry said, "It was a good thing that your grandparents were able to let you and Will come live with them."

"Yes. it was terrible for quite a long time, but between my family and Buttercup, I made it through. It could've been so much worse. As I get older, I can see that more clearly. Overall, I am lucky."

"I would say blessed," he said.

"Yeah, that too," she smirked at him. "Ready to pick up the pace?"

"No, but I don't have a choice do I?"

"Not really."

Elizabeth nudged Buttercup and he went a little faster. Henry kept up pretty well, but he knew that was mostly Maisy's doing and not his own. They arrived at the barn and Elizabeth showed Henry how to brush down the horses. Then they wiped down the saddles, and bridles and folded the blankets before going in for lunch.

Will was seated at the table eating a sandwich. "Cold cuts are on the counter."

"Great. Thanks," Elizabeth said .

"Thanks," Henry said.

They went to the laundry room and washed their hands in the utility sink. As they stood their rinsing the soap from their hands, Henry bumped Elizabeth with his hip. She turned her head to grin at him before bumping him back. They both laughed, but when their eyes met, their laughter trailed off and Elizabeth's hand reached around Henry's waist and pulled him flush to her middle. Leaning in, their lips met and they shared a sweet kiss. Running her still damp fingertips along the hairline at his temple, she gave him a second quick kiss. "Let's eat." She grinned and pulled Henry along behind her to the kitchen.

The pair made their sandwiches and Elizabeth produced a jar of pickles from the fridge and offered it to Henry. He pulled one out and placed it on her plate and then one for himself. They sat down as Will was finishing up. "I'm sorry," Henry said. "We haven't properly met. I'm Henry McCord."

"Ah, the mysterious boyfriend," Will said.

"Would you shut up?" Elizabeth groaned.

"Definitely not it if would please you!" Will countered, standing and moving his plate to the sink. "Pleasure to meet you Henry." Leaning between them, he whispered to Henry. "I'm seriously concerned about your mental health dating my crazy sister." Elizabeth instantaneously reached over and grabbed Will's other ear and pulled him away. "Stop that. See she's crazy!" Elizabeth pulled harder.

"Get out of here, Will. You are such a jerk." Elizabeth pushed Will toward the door He left laughing and rubbing his ear. Turning to Henry, she said, "I'm sorry, ugh. Will can be so annoying."

"He's fun. That's what siblings do. They annoy each other. Just wait until you meet mine."

Elizabeth quieted and took a bite of her sandwich. Finally swallowing, she asked, "Do you think your family will ever accept me, or will I always be the one that took you away from what you were meant to do?"

"I can't answer that, because I never imagined they would react the way they did. But, you didn't take me away from anything."

"Didn't I?"

"No. I decided to listen to my feelings. I've liked other girls before. I've had long term relationships and when it came down to it, my feelings were outweighed by my desire to be a priest. With you, my desire to be a priest was diminished to the point that I had to listen to my feelings. You didn't do that, God did, because he was telling me that I needed to go a different direction. The priesthood wasn't for me." He leaned over and kissed the side of her head. "If my family is too stubborn to see that, then it's their loss."

"Henry, I would never allow you to lose your family over me."

"Again, I don't think that's your choice. It's mine based on their actions." Henry studied her. "I know family is important to you, I get it. But I won't let my family dictate my life. Like you said, they'll come around." Henry rested his hand on her thigh. "It will be okay. I promise."

Elizabeth nodded, but remained unconvinced. They finished lunch in silence. "Are you ready?"

"Sure. What are we doing again?" Henry asked.

"Cleaning the barn," she answered, linking her fingers with his and pulling him along.

"Just give me instructions and I'll be at your service."

Elizabeth spun around and looked at him, grinning. "Is that just for barn cleaning or do I get to apply that to other areas?"

"You're cute," Henry laughed as he pulled he toward him, releasing her hand but wrapping his arm around her waist. He pressed a kiss to her neck. She turned to look at him. What she saw in his eyes made her heart skip a beat. Elizabeth immediately averted her gaze.

When they walked through the barn door, Elizabeth called, "Pop-pop. We're here."

"Hey Lizzie. Good to see you Henry. I see you've been wrangled into helping."

"I don't mind sir. Just tell me what to do." The three spent the next few hours raking old straw out of stalls, adding new, feeding, watering and organizing the riding equipment. "What's next?" Henry said after forking new straw into the last of the stalls.

"I think we are done," Mr. Adams said. "Henry. Thank you for your help. We sure appreciated the extra set of hands."

"It's the least I can do. I appreciate being able to stay with your family over the holiday."

"You're welcome at our house anytime."

"Thank you Mr. Adams."

Henry and Elizabeth watched as the older man walked out of the barn and started back toward the house. Elizabeth looked at Henry. "What time is it?"

"5:15, why?" Henry asked.

She beamed at him and a bubbly laugh erupted from her. "Dinner won't be served until 7; so we can hang out here until it gets close to time." She shifted her eyes to look at the hay loft. "Come on!" she called as she made her way up the ladder.

Henry followed, intrigued by Elizabeth's sudden playfulness. When he stepped off the ladder into the loft. He saw Elizabeth sitting in a wide wooden swing suspended from the roof rafters. He smiled as he made his way to her. "How sturdy is this?" Henry asked, giving her a gentle push.

"If the barn falls down, the swing will probably still be in one piece," she said seriously. Henry chuckled at that and gave Elizabeth a hard push sending her feet sailing over the edge of the loft. From her vantage point, it looked like the floor fell out from under her. It was an exhilarating feeling.

Elizabeth was laughing joyously when she noticed that Henry was suddenly quiet. Elizabeth dropped her feet and stopped herself. "What's wrong Henry?"

"Nothing," Henry replied, but when she turned to look at him, she saw the same look from earlier. It made her feel both excited and nervous.

Elizabeth studied him. "When you look at me like that, what are you thinking?"

Henry blushed. "I'm not sure you want to know."

"I do," Elizabeth looked at him and nodded encouragingly.

"I'm thinking how much I love you."


	6. Chapter 6

AN: I got a little behind in my updates for this story. Sorry for making everyone wait. Reviews are appreciated. Thanks.

Chapter 6

 _Elizabeth studied him. "When you look at me like that, what are you thinking?"_

 _Henry blushed. "I'm not sure you want to know."_

" _I do," Elizabeth looked at him and nodded encouragingly._

" _I'm thinking how much I love you."_

Elizabeth blinked hard, unable to hide her surprise. "Wow! I-I was not expecting that!" she sputtered.

"I told you last night that I was falling for you," he said.

"You did." She studied him. "I feel like there's a big leap between 'falling for' and 'I love you.' I'm not there yet. I think I might getting there, but I can't say when. Does that upset you?"

"No. Not at all. I'll wait as long as it takes," Henry said and he stepped in behind Elizabeth and massaged her shoulders.

She stood, letting the swing fall and turned to face Henry. "You are a good man. I'm lucky that you love me." She wrapped her arms around Henry and hugged him. Tipping her head back, she grinned and batted her eyelashes. "So, we've got a little bit of time. Ya wanna mess around?"

Henry laughed, "And by mess around, you mean-?"

"I mean make out until you stop me." Elizabeth slipped her hands around Henry's back. "Come on," she moved her hand to catch Henry's and pulled him across the hayloft. She took a blanket off of a shelf and spread it out across the loose hay. Shucking her jacket, she untucked her shirt and leaned into Henry pulling his head down for a kiss.

'Here?" he mumbled through her kiss.

"Uh huh," she smiled against his lips as she broke their kiss. Elizabeth ran her hands up underneath Henry's coat and pushed it off his shoulders letting it fall to the ground. She stepped away and knelt down on the blanket.

Henry stood towering above her, "You know, I hate it when you torment me like this."

"Do you really hate it or just feel the need to put up an argument?" Elizabeth asked, smirk across her face.

"A little of both." Henry fell to his knees and wrapped his arm around her waist laying her down on the woven blanket.

Desire swirled through Elizabeth. She kissed him hungrily, their tongues sliding past each other. Reaching down, she wrapped her hand around his wrist and pulled his hand up to her breast. "Touch me," she commanded.

He shook her hand off of him. "You can be so bossy," he said as he snaked his hand up her shirt and massaged her breast making her arch her back and moan loudly.

Elizabeth rolled her hips into Henry seeking friction. He pinned her down "God I want you in me," she panted.

"You know that isn't going to happen." Henry chuckled against her chest before he pulled down the cup of her bra and rolled her nipple in his fingers. "You are a near occasion of sin, you know that?"

"So you've told me before." She slipped her hand between them to touch the bulge in his pants."

"Dammit babe. You have got to stop!" He was starting to get irritated. Elizabeth giggled uncontrollably, but pulled her hand away.

"Okay, okay. I'll stop. Can we just stay here and kiss? She asked sweetly. She knew she had pushed too far. Henry had been pretty up front in the beginning about how far he was willing to go physically, but Elizabeth didn't usually feel the need to play by rules she didn't think were necessary.

"As long as you can control yourself," he smiled against her lip and took her lips in his again, long and slow. Elizabeth instinctively brought her knee up on his hip, pushing herself into him. Henry pushed her leg back down and pulled back.

Elizabeth fell back on the blanket, arms over her head. "This is all your fault you know." Henry raised an eyebrow at her. "If you weren't so hot and such a good kisser and have such big, strong hands, and a big,' Elizabeth stopped there, arching her eyebrows and shifted her gaze to the bulge that remained in his jeans, "Then I wouldn't get this worked up.'

Henry laughed, "If you would keep your hands away from down there, you wouldn't know what size it was, and I can stop kissing and touching you if you like, but unfortunately, I can do nothing about my rugged good looks."

Elizabeth grew serious. "I had sort of hoped now that the priesthood was off the table, you wouldn't be opposed to waiting. Henry was quiet and Elizabeth grew uneasy, "Hey, what's going on?"

He sighed, "I just realized that I have been using the idea of the priesthood to get around some hard discussions. This particular discussion is one that I avoided, because I think it might be an issue."

Elizabeth scooted away from Henry and then rolled back to face him. "It looks like we're about to have it. Do you want to start or shall I?"

"I will. I had a couple girlfriends that I dated for a while, long enough that we were having sex regularly. It was fine, good even, but it was something we did because that's just what we did. There wasn't a lot of connection or emotion behind it. We both knew we weren't a long term thing, so there wasn't the investment. A while back, after a handful of one night stands, I decided that if the opportunity presented itself again, the next time I had sex, it would be for real. It would be with the person that I was going to be with forever. I want the emotional connection. I don't want to fuck you Elizabeth, or hump you or tap you, or any of the other thousands of terms there are for random sex. I want to make love to you and before I do, I want us to both be on the same page. I want us to know that this is it for both of us. That we are together for the rest of our lives."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes playfully. "Well, now I'm going to sound really shallow when I say that I'm just really tired of getting myself off because I get all worked up and then have nowhere for that tension to go." Henry laughed and Elizabeth continued, "Really though, I've never really had feelings for someone else like I have for you, so sex and love have never gone together. Sex has always been just a physical release. It's never been emotional for me. I've never experienced that kind of connection before." Elizabeth thought about that for a minute. "How long are you thinking?"

"I don't know. I just want us both to be invested in this relationship long term. Sometimes I think that maybe I'm being too romantic and that it won't be different at all, and then I look at you and my chest gets tight and I feel lightheaded and I think it will be amazing,"

"Now that I know I'm not getting kicked to the curb for you to become a priest, I think my heart will be more open. I've spent the last month fighting the feelings I have trying not to get too attached, thinking that it may not work out." She leaned in and

kissed him, her hand on the back of his head, holding him, so he couldn't retreat. "If my dreams are any indication, it will definitely be amazing." she grinned and hopped up off the blanket. "We're going to be late for dinner."

Henry stood and folded the blanket and stopped to pick the few pieces of hay out of Elizabeth's hair. "My dreams aren't half bad either." He kissed her. "Let's go."

Elizabeth woke Thursday morning and headed downstairs to help with Thanksgiving dinner preparations, only to find Grandma Elaine, Will and Henry already hard at work. "How come no one woke me up?"

"We had things under control," Elaine said, "Henry has been a big help."

"Thumbs up for picking a guy that can cook, He's taken the load off of me," Will said. Elizabeth just gave him a hard stare before turning to her Grandma.

"What can I do?" she asked.

"Uh, the celery and onions need to be cut for the dressing." Elaine said.

Henry stepped to the side revealing a cutting board. "You can use this." Elizabeth opened the fridge and produced the celery and then disappeared into the pantry.

"One or two?" she called.

"Two," all three of them called, then looked at each other and laughed.

"What's so funny?" she asked as she stepped back out.

"We all like onion?" Henry guessed and kissed Elizabeth's cheek before returning to his task.

The morning passed quickly and finally all of the prep work was finished and they were just waiting for the correct time to put dishes into the oven.

"Hey Henry. I'm going to watch the game. Do you want to join me?" Will asked.

"Yeah. I'll be in in a few minutes." Turning to Elizabeth, he took her hand and led her upstairs. When they reached his room, he went inside pulling her with him. "What's wrong?"

"Hmm?"

"Something is up with you. You've been abnormally quiet and you didn't get on Will's case at all this morning. So?" He looked at her and Elizabeth felt that he could see into her soul and there was no way she could ever keep anything from him.

She gave him a small smile. "It's nothing big. Just Thanksgiving was the first holiday after my parents died and it gets to me sometimes. I just miss them is all." Henry pulled her into a warm embrace and held her. "I'm okay. Really. Thank you for asking. You go on and hang out with Will. I'm going to go out to the barn and check to see if Pop-pop needs anything."

"Let me know if you need me for anything, okay?" Henry squeezed her shoulders and pecked her lips before turning to go downstairs. Elizabeth pulled on some barn clothes and headed outside into the frigid air.

Entering the barn, she found Joseph Adams at the workbench replacing leather straps on some of the older bridles. "Hi Pop-pop, how's it going ?"

"Pretty good. Did you all get the food ready to go?"

"Yes, Grandma has a schedule written out of when everything has to go in the oven," she said. Joseph laughed.

"That's Elaine for you. She's organized one too many charity fundraisers, so even Thanksgiving dinner runs on a schedule."

"Pop-pop, stop it." She smiled, but then stood silently at his side watching him work.

"You have something you want to talk about Lizzie?"

She shrugged, "I don't know maybe. Did Grandma tell you that Henry was discerning the priesthood?"

He chuckled, "You can rest assured that your grandmother doesn't share any girl talk. The priesthood, huh?"

"But he quit, he decided not to pursue it." Elizabeth pushed the toe of her shoe around in the dirt.

"Is that why he's here? Breaking the news didn't go well?"

"Something like that."

"And you're the reason?" He cocked his head in Elizabeth's direction.

"He says that he just realized he was meant to be a husband and a father. So not me specifically, but then he told me that he loves me."

"And do you love him?"

"I don't know. How do I know if I'm in love with someone?"

"That's a million dollar question. Everyone who is in love with someone probably has their own idea about the whys and hows and all of that. But I can tell you how I knew your Grandma was the one." Elizabeth pulled up a stool and leaned in, rested her elbows on the workbench. "I knew she was the one because every time we were apart, I spent my time wondering what she was doing or how she was doing. When we were apart, it was like there was a piece of me missing and when together, I was whole again. We had an argument one time when we were dating, and now I can't even tell you what it was about, but she walked out and I thought we were over. For that first hour, I was still mad and didn't care, but as I calmed down and realized what might actually happen, I completely broke down. The thought of Elaine not being at my side made me physically ill. I jumped up and went to her house in the middle of the night and apologized and professed my love. We were married a month later. That was 64 years ago. I haven't second guessed myself once in all those years." He grinned at Elizabeth.

"Thanks Pop-pop. That makes a lot of sense. Dinner is in a couple hours, so don't be late."

Laughing, Joseph answered, "I won't miss it. I promise." Elizabeth turned to go. "Hey, Lizzie. Henry's a good guy. He would be good to you."

"He already is." she smiled and stepped back to plant a kiss on his cheek. "I love you."

The evening brought everyone to the kitchen and led to a procession carrying warm dishes to the dining room table. "We should've put the extra leaf in the table to accommodate the food," Joseph said.

"Oh hush," Elaine called from the kitchen. "Just push the dishes closer together."

Joseph shook his head causing Henry and Will to chuckle. The boys took their seats and Joseph returned carrying in the plate of already carved turkey, which he insisted he do before everyone sat down. His argument being that everyone's food got cold waiting for him to hack on the bird. With her grandparents sitting at either end of the table, Elizabeth sat down next to Henry, Will on the opposite side. Her grandfather said a short blessing and they started passing the food.

The group chatted amiably as they ate. About halfway through the meal, Henry placed his hand on Elizabeth's thigh She glanced over at him and he gave her a wide smile before poking a forkful of green bean casserole in his mouth. She giggled and they continued eating. She placed her left hand on his on her leg. As they finished, Will and Henry got up to clear the dishes and Elizabeth went in to the kitchen to get the dessert plates and the pies. As they passed around dessert, Elizabeth was feeling warm and she was sure it was more than the glass of wine she'd had with dinner. Thanksgiving ws her least favorite holiday because of her parents, but Henry's presence had turned that around. She now felt warm, happy and content.

After dinner, everyone helped clean up and the men were retiring to the living room for watch the end of whatever game was on TV. Elizabeth, caught Henry, by the arm and pulled him into the laundry room. The dryer was running and muffled their noise, "Wow, it's steamy in here!" Henry exclaimed and then laughed at his pun.

"Oh God, Henry. That was terrible." He pulled her in and gave her a peck on the lips.

"You didn't drag me in here to play kissy face?" Henry asked.

"Nope. Afraid not. I wanted to ask you to call your mom."

"No. I have no desire to talk to her after the way she acted the other day." Henry's voice was hard.

"She's had time to cool off and it's a holiday and you're her son and you aren't home. I bet she misses you." Elizabeth prodded.

"Maybe she does, maybe she doesn't, but I don't plan on finding out."

"Please. It's important to me that you make the effort. Henry, you never know what could happen and would you really want to end your relationship they way you did the other day?" Elizabeth pleaded.

Henry acquiesced. "Fine. I'll call, but I'm going to wait an hour so I make sure their done with dinner."

"Fabulous! Thank you., thank you, thank you. Go watch the game and I'll come to get you in an hour."

Henry sat in the dining room with the telephone on the table, long cord dangling from the kitchen wall. "You're really going to make me do that?" he asked.

"I'm not going to make you, but I'd really like you to. You are going to have to start building the bridge sometime and now is a really good time. Remember I'm trying to get you back in their good graces by Christmas.," Elizabeth replied.

"I think maybe you just want rid of me." Henry teased.

"Hardly, but I don't want to be in the middle of your family upheaval."

"Fine." Henry dialed the number. As it rang, Elizabeth kissed his forehead and disappeared into the kitchen. She did stick around to hear his side of the conversation in hopes that it would be good.

"Hey mom." he said. "I just called to wish you guys a Happy Thanksgiving." Long pause. "I know. We were all angry. I didn't think I could handle coming back home right then." Silence. "I'm staying at Elizabeth's grandparents' house." "Yes, she is." "They are." "Her parents died several years ago. She lives with her grandparents and her brother." "I've been helping do a few things while I'm here." "I'll probably go back to school on Saturday to do some studying to prepare for finals." "Are you still pretty angry?" "You talked to Father Mark?" That's a good thing, right?" "Okay, how about I call you and let you know what Christmas vacation looks like? I know I'll have to work some of it, but I should have a couple weeks off." "Probably, we haven't talked about it." "I'll let you know." "Love you, tell everyone I love them too. Bye."

Elizabeth was sitting at the bar in the kitchen flipping through a magazine, when Henry came in and replaced the phone on the wall. "Don't even pretend like you weren't eavesdropping."

"Alright, so I was eavesdropping. It didn't sound really bad. I mean I didn't hear screaming through the phone." Elizabeth sounded hopeful.

"It was better than I thought it would be. Mom and Dad went to talk to Father Mark and he set them straight, so that helped. And Mom wants to know if you will be joining me for any part of Christmas break." He grinned at her. I think you made some serious Brownie Points with her by calling the other night.

Elizabeth smiled. "So maybe she doesn't hate me?"

Henry bit his upper lip. "I wouldn't go that far yet. Maybe she just wants to meet you so she can see the competition." He shrugged. "It doesn't really matter though. There isn't a competition being held. I won and I got the girl. Yea me!"

She sidled up to him and wrapped her arms around his waist, "Thanks for calling. I'm glad you sort of worked things out, or at least made progress."

"Yeah. thanks for making me do it. I wouldn't have otherwise and I do feel better." Henry said. "We make a pretty good team you know."

"That we do."


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: This is way rambly. Sorry. I needed to get from Point A to Point B, and it seems that I can only do that using about 4000 words.

I love reviews and hearing your thoughts on where this should go.

Chapter 7

Elizabeth unfolded the piece of paper in her hand. She reread it: 13752 Miller Ave. Looking up at the house she was parked in front of, she matched the numbers to her note. She definitely had the right house, but Henry's car wasn't parked on the street and that made Elizabeth uncomfortable. She felt like she needed him as a buffer, especially with his parents.

Glancing up the street one final time, she wadded the paper up and threw it in the floorboard and opened the car door. Elizabeth refused to be someone who backed down from something uncomfortable. She pulled her duffle from the back seat and headed up the walk. Steeling herself, she plastered a big smile on her face and rang the doorbell.

It took a full minute and she was becoming concerned that she had written the address wrong when the door opened and a dark haired girl, younger than her, opened the door. She smiled and Elizabeth was immediately put at ease by the friendly girl. "You must be Elizabeth. I'm Erin, Henry's youngest sister."

"Hi Erin. It's nice to meet you." Erin welcomed her in and took her bag.

"I'll just run this upstairs for you." She turned and smiled. "Henry has been talking about you nonstop." She turned to go upstairs. "Mom, Elizabeth is here," she called in the direction that Elizabeth guessed was the kitchen.

Taking a moment, she looked around the room. It was a nice sized room, filled with older, but comfortable and well cared for furniture. It looked warm and homey. She could definitely see that Henry fit in this room. She was a little unsure about her own place, but she quickly pushed that feeling of anxiety out of the way and headed to the kitchen to meet Henry's mom.

Pushing the swinging door open, she saw a middle aged woman cutting vegetables next to the sink. "Hi, Mrs, McCord." The woman slowly stopped what she was doing, dried her hands on the towel and turned.

"Elizabeth," she said,

Elizabeth took a few steps forward, crossing the kitchen, and extended her hand. "It's nice to meet you. Henry has told me such wonderful things about his family, particularly you."

Marie McCord raised her eyebrows at the girl and eyes fell to Elizabeth's outstretched hand. "Well I suppose that should provide some consolation then, shouldn't it?" She turned back to her task.

Elizabeth uncharacteristically flinched. _Damn. I was not expecting that kind of hostility right off the bat._ She tried to decide which way to play it. She finally spoke, and hoped she could keep her voice lighter than she felt. "You probably should take some pride in knowing that you raised a smart, kind and thoughtful son."

"Which is being wasted," Marie muttered.

"And I suppose you think that's my fault?" The words fell from her mouth before she vetted them and Elizabeth was a little surprised at the slightly challenging tone she used on someone she had met only seconds ago. Now she was committed, so she had no plans of backing down. She watched as Henry's mother carefully placed the knife on the cutting board before turning around.

Marie stared the young girl down. She was surprised by what she saw. She expected to see smug satisfaction on the girl's face, but there was none of that. She saw determination, love, honesty, and perhaps a bit of guilt. Her eyes were open, wide and clear, ready to take whatever Marie had to throw at her. The whole scene had taken the wind from Marie's sails. She slipped into the chair across from where Elizabeth was still standing. "I want it to be your fault." Marie rethought that statement as soon as I left her mouth. " Actually, I need it to be your fault."

There was a commotion at the front door. Both Elizabeth and Marie turned in time to see Henry walk through the kitchen door. "Here are the groceries, as requested," he said, setting a full paper bag down on the table, putting a hand on Marie's shoulder.

Turning to Elizabeth, he widened his smile. "You're here a little earlier than I thought you'd be." He leaned in to kiss her, but she turned her head, so Henry's kiss landed on her cheek.

"I left a little earlier than I was planning. Will was getting on my nerves something fierce." She smiled and let Henry lead her back into the living room.

"Hey Shane," Henry called to the boy that was now about two-thirds of the way upstairs. "Come back down for a minute."

When he got to the spot where he could see all the way down the stairs, Shane's smile brightened. "You must be Elizabeth." He threw his arm around her and pulled her into an awkward side hug, something Elizabeth definitely was not expecting from a 17 year old boy that she'd never met. "Thank goodness you're here. Now maybe Henry can talk to you instead of talking about you, because I am so over it!" He winked at her and headed back upstairs.

"How was mom?" Henry whispered in her ear.

"She was alright. I'm not on her Christmas card list yet, but it's okay." Elizabeth smiled, hoping that Henry would let it go. She was going to be completely satisfied if Marie McCord didn't yell and scream at her before this weekend was over.

"I haven't seen you in two weeks. You owe me a real kiss." Henry wrapped his arm around her middle and pulled her close

"Henry. This isn't a good idea. Your parents are still upset. We are absolutely not making out in their living room. They may not need to be my friends, but I sure don't want enemies."

"Fine," he muttered. He released her and disappeared without a word into the kitchen. He returned only moments later. "Get your coat," he said.

"It's still in the car," she replied, confused as to his sudden change in demeanor.

"Great. Even better. We'll take your car. Let's go." Henry clasped his hand around Elizabeth's and ushered her out the door and to her car.

"What are you doing? Or better yet, where are we going?"

"For a drive." She handed him the keys.

"Then you drive, because I have no idea where we are." He opened the door for her and then proceeded to get in the car himself and take off down the street. He pointed out minor points of interest, like his best friend's house, the church they attended, his high school and he gave a cursory nod to the new soccer fields that had just been built. Elizabeth sat back and took it all in. It wasn't that she was uninterested, but the whole trip seemed out of character and she wondered what exactly was going on.

He finally pulled into a small parking lot and parked her car. "Now, since I am a romantic at heart, I thought I'd bring you to a place of scenic interest." He reached over into the back seat and handed her her winter jacket. "You'll need this."

"Oh kay," she said slowly, her voice filled with suspicion. He got out and rounded the car, opening her door. She stepped out and slipped the jacket on and Henry reached out for the bottom hem and caught the zipper, zipping it up for her.

"It's windy up here." Taking her hand, he led her down a narrow paved walkway out to an overlook.

"Wow, that's pretty," she said, her breath low. They were overlooking a part of the city where two rivers converged.

"That's the Monongahela and that's the Allegheny," he started.

"And they form the beginning of the Ohio River." Elizabeth finished.

"Sometimes you being smart is a pain in my ass." Henry quipped.

"If my intelligence is the only thing about me that's a pain in your ass, consider yourself lucky." Henry laughed.

"The view is nice, but I didn't bring you up here just for that." Henry said quietly.

"You have ulterior motives?" Elizabeth raised her eyebrows and feigned shock.

"Come here," he said, taking her in his arms and placing his lips on hers. "That's a little better," he murmured against her lips. She smiled and pulled his top lip into her mouth nipping at it before running her tongue along the edge. Their tongues worked in tandem, hers ahead of his and his over hers.

Finally, she broke away. "It's cold and we're going to end up with chapped lips and that will be hard to explain." He grinned at her and produced a tube of chapstick. Popping the cap off, she took it from him and coated her lips. Handing back to him, Elizabeth grabbed the collar of his coat and pulled him close, kissing him. "There you go," she winked. "I got ya covered."

In the car on the way to back to Henry's parents' house, they chatted about how Henry's visit had gone and how his parents were. Elizabeth skipped the part about her conversation with his mom. She would work that out on her own. He didn't need to be trying to fix her situation with his mother. He needed to make sure he was repairing his own relationship first.

When they returned, Henry took a deep breath. "So Dad and Maureen are home. They are hard to get along with under the best of circumstances. The best situation we can hope for is that they completely ignore you. Don't worry about it. I'll tell them to back off, but just don't be surprised if there ends up being some sort of argument about it."

"That's comforting." Elizabeth muttered under her breath as Henry rounded to car to open her door.

"The most important thing to remember is that I love you and they can pretty much go to Hell if that's what has to happen." Henry kissed her cheek.

"Well, I have no intention of letting that happen, so we should be fine." Elizabeth said, with an air of confidence she hoped would stay with her throughout the evening.

As they sat down to the table, Elizabeth was reasonably pleased with how meeting Patrick, Henry's dad and Maureen, his sister, had gone. Neither were friendly, nor were they unfriendly, so she would take that as a victory. She soon found that she was lulled into a false sense of equal footing. After the meal prayer and food had been passed around, Patrick said, "So Elizabeth, is that your BMW out front?"

"Yes sir. I got it from my Grandfather before I left for college."

"That's a pretty nice gift. Must be nice to have rich relatives."

"Dad!" Henry said through gritted teeth.

Elizabeth's hand landed on Henry's knee and squeezed. It. "Yes Mr. McCord. I am pretty lucky to have my grandparents and they treat my brother and I very well. I know there are others who aren't so blessed."

Henry surveyed the table filled with his four kids. "You all need grandparents like that. I suppose it takes a load off of your parents."

"Patrick!" "Dad!" came from both Marie and Henry at the same time.

Elizabeth ignored both of her defenders and met Patrick McCord's eyes. "In some cases that might be helpful, but my parents are dead, so I don't think they noticed much."

Patrick visibly cringed. "I didn't know."

"And now you do." Elizabeth took a bite of food and chewed it slowly , not breaking eye contact. It was a very uncomfortable full minute before Elizabeth turned to Erin and asked a question about one of her high school activities and the silence was broken, replaced slowly by the sounds of friendly family chatting.

Elizabeth jumped in and helped clean up after the meal, but found her conversations limited to those with Shane and Erin. She was torn between thankfulness and annoyance at this. She didn't want to fight with anyone, but the silent treatment the others were doling out was hard to take. She thought she'd rather them be vocal over silent.

Henry caught her in the hallway coming out of the bathroom later in the evening. "Are you doing okay?" She smiled and nodded.

"I'm fine. Are you okay?" She received a sarcastic laugh in response.

"My Dad," Henry said, hanging his head.

"Stop." She ran her fingers along his jaw. "Do you seriously think your Dad is the only person ever to say something insensitive about my parents? Come on. It happens a lot. People don't think before they speak. I'm a big girl. I can handle it. Promise." She kissed him on the cheek before heading back to the living room to sit with everyone.

At 5:30 AM the next morning, Elizabeth sat at the kitchen table, her fingers wrapped around the mug of too hot coffee. She was tired but could not sleep.

She had been issued sleeping quarters in Maureen and Erin's room, which was fine. Erin had a pull out trundle bed and had been very friendly. She paused a moment to be thankful for Erin, without whom this entire trip would have been difficult enough to consider leaving. Maureen on the other hand was awful. Elizabeth felt like she had be lulled into a false sense on complacency when it came to Maureen. She hadn't spoken to Elizabeth all evening, but once they were behind closed doors, it was a no holds barred attack, and Elizabeth immediately regretted her wish for Maureen to speak to her..

Elizabeth heard everything from how slutty she was to attacks on her intelligence, to her reserved spot in Hell for what she had done. Elizabeth had been ready to leave when Erin had come in and Maureen stepped back into her shell of silence.

Elizabeth tried to sleep it off but was largely unsuccessful. It was around 5 that she finally got up for the day and went downstairs in search of coffee.

At 5:30, Marie wandered into the kitchen muttering about people not shutting off lights when she saw Elizabeth at the table. "Oh. I didn't know anyone else was up."

"I made a pot of coffee. I hope that's alright."

"That's what I came to do myself, Thanks." Marie poured a cup and took a sip. "That's good coffee."

"Thank you," Elizabeth said. The two sat opposite each other for a long time. Elizabeth looked up to find Marie staring at her. She blew out a long breath. "Do you ever see a time when you don't blame me for Henry's decision?"

Marie's eyes widened. "I don't-"

"You do," Elizabeth interrupted. "You think that if he'd never met me or I hadn't thrown myself at him or sucked him in using my ditzy blond super powers or whatever the Hell else I would have done, then he would still happily be walking the road to priesthood and your dream would be in tact." She met the older woman's gaze. "I just need to know where I stand."

"Do you love him?" Marie asked.

"I don't know." Marie narrowed her eyes at Elizabeth. "What? Do you want me to lie?"

"Henry loves you."

"I know. But I'm not going to tell him something that he wants to hear anymore than I will you. I like him a lot. I see him in my future, but I don't know that it means I love him."

"He's throwing away his future because of you." Marie's voice held more contempt than she thought a single voice could.

"I don't equate changing your direction in life with throwing your future away."

"Of course you don't."

"We are going to have to agree to disagree on this. I'm sorry that things didn't work out as you had planned. Perhaps when he offered to talk religion over coffee, I should've said no. Maybe that would've kept your life plan for him in tact or it's possible we would've met another way, or perhaps he would've met someone else because maybe he isn't meant to be a priest. I think you should pray that God's will be done and worry less about your own desires." Elizabeth stood and rinsed her coffee cup put out and set it in the sink before leaving the room.

She went upstairs and grabbed her bag from the bedroom and took it to the bathroom so she could shower. Once under the steaming water, she let her tears fall. She wasn't sure what she thought she would encounter with her visit, but this was much worse than she imagined. After a few minutes of self pity, she pulled herself together, finished showering and got ready for the day.

She started downstairs with a book tucked under her arm, with a plan to be immersed in some pointless fictional work for the day. Maybe the trials of the main character would be enough distraction from her own trials. Elizabeth certainly hoped so.

Hitting the bottom step, she heard Henry's voice coming from the kitchen and she longed to go tell him good morning and have him wrap his arms around her and hug her tight telling her everything would be okay. Then she heard Maureen and Marie in the kitchen with him and decided against it. After the conversation with Marie earlier, she wasn't emotionally ready to spar again, at least not yet. She sat down on the couch and opened the book, trying to read.

Henry came out of the kitchen. Elizabeth looked up and smiled. "Come sit with me," she said, patting the cushion next to hers

"Hey babe! I didn't even know you were up." He sat down and put his arm around her shoulders. She more than willingly curled into his side. With her head resting on his shoulder, she took in his scent. It was calming. She no longer felt like she was floating aimlessly. Henry grounded her. She sneaked in a peck on the lips before closing her eyes and drifting off.

"Sleepyhead. Wake up," Elizabeth started to stir and she felt Henry's lips on her temple as he whispered to her. Opening her eyes, she smiled as Henry kissed her again on the cheek.

"Mmm. How long did I sleep? I didn't mean to doze off. I guess I didn't sleep very well." Just a little white lie.

"I'm not sure. Maybe 45 minutes to an hour. The kids are going to the Mall after lunch to just hang around. Do you want to go? I'm driving them."

"By kids, you mean?" she asked.

"Erin and Shane and a few of their friends. If you don't want to go, I'll just drive them and dump them out and come back, but if you want to go, I thought we could do something to pass time."

"I'd like to go," Elizabeth smiled. Henry pulled her to a sitting position. Elizabeth blinked her eyes several times in a effort to really wake up. "Is it almost lunch time? I can help get things ready."

"You've got half an hour or so. I just wanted to see if you wanted to go." Henry sat down next to her and pulled her close. She turned her body and threw her legs over his lap. "Mom told me you two talked this morning." Elizabeth tensed.

"I bet she had interesting things to say," Elizabeth mumbled.

"Not really. She just said that you were up this morning when she got up and you talked a bit, and that you make good coffee."

"I do make a decent pot of coffee." Elizabeth agreed.

"Was it bad?" Henry asked.

"On a scale of tense conversations I've had since arriving yesterday, it fell squarely in the middle."

"Maureen on the bad end."

Elizabeth leaned in and whispered, "I don't think you adequately covered how awful she could be. But, my plan is to not let Erin get more than 3 feet away from me and then maybe I'll be safe."

"That's a very good plan. Erin doesn't take shit from Maureen. Ever."

"What's for lunch? I'm starving." she grinned at him.

"Let's go see. We'll help."

And so the rest of the weekend went by. Elizabeth stayed close to Erin or Henry and avoided most confrontation. They had a good time at the mall. Elizabeth discovered that she had a great aptitude for skeeball, and beat everyone soundly. Everyone came back to the McCord house for dinner and they played games all evening.

Sunday was a whirlwind, attending Mass and then having breakfast together and packing up to say goodbye. Elizabeth ran upstairs to double check to make sure she got everything, and happened to overhear Shane and Henry talking. She wasn't trying to eavesdrop but heard something about Shane needing a car and not having enough money to get one.

She carried her things to her car and met Henry on the way out with his things. "What were you and Shane talking about?," she asked.

"Oh, Shane is about to lose his job as a construction apprentice because the new contract they picked up is too far for him to get to after school. He doesn't have enough money to buy a decent car."

"Would you consider letting him have your car and you just drive mine? You know I hardly ever drive except to go home and I hope that most of the time if I go, you'll go too. If you find that you need your car back, we can just come up one weekend. Maybe he can keep it long enough to save money to buy his own." She looked at Henry hopefully. She hated to see Shane lose his job. He had been talking about how much he liked it and how much he was learning.

"That's an excellent idea. You are so thoughtful, Do you know that?" Henry dropped his backpack on the sidewalk to take her in his arms holding her tight.

"Let's move your stuff into my car and make sure you have everything out of yours and then you can go tell Shane."

Ten minutes later, as everyone was gathering to say goodbye, Shane dashed down the stairs and nearly tackled Elizabeth. "Thank you," he said. The rest of the family stood in confusion, but no one asked and Elizabeth didn't volunteer. They would figure it out when they left anyway.

"No problem. Glad it worked out." They were on the road soon and Henry grasped Elizabeth's hand.

"That meant more to Shane than you will ever know. Thank you." She just smiled, thankful that at least a couple members of the McCord family didn't think she was awful.

December somehow turned into February and everyone was feeling the length of the Virginia winter. It was depressing, cold and always damp: snow melting, snow falling, raining before snow. Elizabeth had just fought off the worst of a cold but still had the cough and sniffles. Now Henry seemed to be coming down with it. He called her earlier that morning to see if she could bring him breakfast from the cafeteria because he didn't feel up to getting out. An hour later, she was at his door with a bowl of hot oatmeal, coffee and a banana. He answered the door. "You look awful." She set the food down on the desk and reached up to touch his forehead. "You're burning up. Back to bed with you." She moved a small TV tray over to his bedside and put the food on it and filled a glass with water and dumped a couple Tylenol into his hand. "Take those." Henry groaned before swallowing the pills.

"I think I may have the flu. I hurt all over and my neck is stiff." Henry muttered.

"Lay back down. I only have one class, so I'll be back to check on you on an hour, okay?" Henry barely nodded. Elizabeth left the door unlocked and went to class. As soon as it was over, she rushed back, having a feeling that something wasn't right. When she walked in, her fears were confirmed. Henry was unconscious, his fever seeming even higher than before. As she made the 911 call, she prayed to Henry's God that he be healed. She sat on the edge of his bed, tears running down her face, holding his hand, while waiting for the paramedics to arrive, scared of what might be coming their way.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: The latest installment for your reading pleasure. I apologize. This chapter took a couple days longer than I thought it was going to. Happy reading.

Chapter 8

Elizabeth sat on a small metal bench in the hallway outside Henry's room. He had just been taken to the operating room to undergo a spinal tap, the purpose of which was to confirm what the doctors were reasonably sure was bacterial meningitis. She rubbed her arms trying to keep the goosebumps at bay. It was freezing in the hospital and she'd left her coat in Henry's dorm room. She winced when she rubbed over the spot where they drew her blood to make sure she didn't have it. Tucking her knees up against her chest, she put her head down and cried.

She hadn't felt this alone since those hours she spent sitting in the hospital so many years ago, when they kept Will for observation and her parents lay in the morgue two floors below. Now she let her head fall back against the wall and tried to remember what the doctor had said. Meningitis. A swelling of the tissues around the brain characterized by high fever, headache, stiff neck, and the list went on. Possible outcomes. She knew there were several but the one that kept flashing in her mind was death. It could be fatal. But, the doctors already started antibiotics, so they hoped he would be fine.

Death. Henry. Dead. She tried to swallow the sob that was welling up in her throat, but it wouldn't go away. It bubbled over like a glass held under the faucet too long. Once started, it would not stop. She couldn't lose Henry. She didn't think she could go on if something happened to him. She was supposed to spend the rest of her life with him. He couldn't die. He didn't even know that she loved him. Elizabeth was not a praying person, but in that moment she prayed to whatever God she thought might keep Henry alive so that she might tell him how she felt about him.

It was quite a while later that she saw him coming back up the hallway. Only a single orderly pushing the bed, instead of the three that had left with him. He pushed a still unconscious Henry through the doorway, The man hooked the IV bag back up on the stand and reattached the oxygen and heart monitor before leaving the room. No one specifically told Elizabeth that she couldn't be in the room, so she slipped in quietly and pulled a chair close, She watched him intently before taking his hand in hers and laying her head at his side.

She wasn't sure how long she'd been there when someone gently shook her by the shoulders. She sat up, slowly blinking her eyes. Turning to look, she found her grandparents standing there. Unable to hold back her tears, she fell into Pop-pop sobbing and Grandma Elaine rubbed her back. The three stood in a huddle until Elizabeth pulled herself together enough to speak. "What time is it?" she asked, her voice hoarse from crying.

"About 7," Joe said.

"Okay. Henry's parents should probably be here within a couple hours. I'm not sure how quickly they were able to leave Pittsburgh, and there are icy roads up their way."

"Why don't we all go down to the cafeteria and get something to eat? I bet you haven't eaten at all today." Elaine suggested. Elizabeth vehemently shook her head no.

"I'm staying with Henry. You guys go ahead. I'm not hungry." Knowing that it would do no good to argue with her, Joe and Elaine turned toward the door. "But if you find an extra jacket or something, that would be nice. It's really cold in here." Nodding, they left, and a few minutes later, a nurse poked her head in the door and handed Elizabeth a heated blanket. Wrapping herself up, she curled up at the foot of Henry's bed. With her arm outstretched, she held his hand, waiting for him to wake.

Movement caused Elizabeth to open her eyes. Henry was looking down at her. As he came into focus, her eyes shot open and she pushed herself up. "Henry!" She picked up his hand and kissed it. "How do you feel?"

"I've felt better. What's going on?" he asked her groggily.

"You have bacterial meningitis. You are getting a round of super strong antibiotics to knock it out, and the doctors think they caught it in time before it could do any real damage." She turned to look at the clock, "What time is it?"

"A little after midnight, why?"

"Where are your parents?" Elizabeth was concerned. "I called them before they took you for the spinal tap. That was around noon." She pushed herself off the bed. "I'm going to go check to see if they have called. Can I get you anything?"

"Maybe some water?" Henry asked.

Elizabeth went to the nurses' station and asked about the McCords. She found out that they did call and were delayed by bad weather, but knew that Henry was in stable condition. They also told her that her grandparents left for the evening but would be calling in the morning to check in and see if she needed anything. Before returning, Elizabeth got a glass of water and a jell-o cup for Henry.

Walking into the room a few minutes later, Elizabeth reported, "Your parents got delayed by bad weather, but they called so they know you are doing ok. Here's some water and some jell-o if you wanted something to eat."

"Thanks babe," He sat up fully and took a drink of the water she held in front of him. "My head still hurts really bad. I don't think I can eat anything yet." He scooted over. "Sit by me, please." he said.

She did, and closed her eyes and said a prayer of thanks that Henry was still with her and looked so much better. "Can I tell you something?" Elizabeth said suddenly.

"Sure, what's that?"

"I realized something. There was a period of time today when I thought I might lose you and it made me think about things in a new way. The thought of having to live my life without you paralyzed me with fear and despair. I realized that I always want you with me." She stopped, thinking about the gravity of what she was about to say, words that at one time, she thought she would never say to anyone again. "I love you Henry Patrick McCord." She pressed a kiss to his forehead. "Just know that I want to really kiss you, but you are super contagious."

A look of alarm crossed Henry's face, and Elizabeth knew immediately what he was thinking. "It's fine. I've already been tested and I don't have it."

"Good." Henry, still holding her hand, gave it a gentle tug. "Come here," he murmured. When she leaned in, he pulled her to him in a hug. Elizabeth pulled back and Henry looked a little hurt.

"How about this?" she said and shifted herself so she could lay down next to him and rest her head on his chest.

"That is better," he said, kissing the top of her head. "I love you too, by the way."

"I know. I'm sorry it took you getting really sick for me to realize it."

"Hmmm," Henry murmured drowsily. "Just stay with me will you?" Elizabeth hugged him tighter and closed her eyes.

Early morning light streamed in through the window and Elizabeth slowly opened her eyes. She felt the steady rise and fall of Henry's chest as he slept. It created a warmth in her that she didn't think she'd ever had a name for. She felt it frequently since meeting Henry and after yesterday she now knew that warm feeling was love. She most certainly loved Henry McCord and it made her smile just to think about it.

There was a rustle of clothing behind her and a sigh. Pushing herself up carefully, trying not to wake Henry, she turned to find Marie and Patrick leaning against each other, dozing on the small couch under the window. She slid off the edge of the bed and stepped to the door, hoping not to wake anyone. She exited and went to use the restroom down the hall.

After splashing some cool water on her face and rinsing her mouth, she felt a little more awake. She stood in front of the mirror and ran her fingers through her hair, trying to arrange it in some way that looked better than the slept on look she currently possessed. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts, she shrugged her shoulders and let it go. Stopping by the visitor waiting room, she picked up three cups of coffee and returned to the room.

Elizabeth pushed the door open with her hip and saw Marie sitting on the edge of the bed watching a still sleeping Henry. "Hi," she whispered, setting the coffee down on the bedside table. "Would you like one?"

"Not yet. In a bit though." Marie looked down at Henry. "Has he been awake?"

"He was for a bit around midnight. His head still hurt pretty bad. I told him that you were on your way and then he went back asleep pretty quickly." She watched Marie carefully. She looked like the pain of her son physically caused her pain. Elizabeth felt the same, but would never say it to her. She knew Marie would see it as some sort of rivaling move on Elizabeth's part, and that was the last thing shewanted to do.

"Henry looks so pale," Marie murmured.

"I was just thinking how much better he looked.' Elizabeth chuckled softly, but it quickly died in her throat as she thought of Henry laying in his dorm room, his breaths shallow, the grayish-purple tint to his skin and the heat. She tried to swallow the lump in her throat. He was so hot. Not moving. Not responding to her voice. To her touch. Elizabeth's hand flew to cover her mouth trying to physically hold her reaction in. "Excuse me," she choked out before she turned and nearly ran from the room.

Outside the door, she leaned against the wall, sliding down to the floor. All of the emotion of the previous day: the fear, the unknown, the loneliness, it all pressed against her chest demanding release. The tears stung her eyes. Her heart pounded in her ears. Elizabeth sat squarely in the middle of all of her uncomfortable emotions. She had already dealt with her parents death and all of the emotions that went along with that. She learned that shoving them aside did nothing to improve the situation. They always stayed just below the surface and came out at the most inconvenient time. She knew that she had to face them head on, feel it all, good and bad, and deal with them right then.

Henry was going to be fine. She could've lost him, but she didn't, She knew she loved him and she had told him. It was scary and it brought back all of the sadness and loneliness she went through with her parents. It sucked, but she sat there and remembered it all and cried through it all, breathed through everything that remained.

As Elizabeth sat against the wall, her eyes closed, she heard the room door open and someone sit next to her. Marie. She exhaled. Elizabeth could hardly wait for this exchange, so much so that she rolled her eyes behind her eyelids. "Are you alright?" Marie asked.

"I'm getting there," Elizabeth answered.

"What exactly are you doing?"

"I'm working through with my emotions so I don't bottle them up and become a raving bitch."

Marie pondered that. "Perhaps I should try that."

"My experience is that you don't bottle up your emotions at all." Elizabeth stated.

"Only that I'm a raving bitch?" Marie asked.

Elizabeth used her shirt sleeve to wipe the tears from her face. She looked at Marie. "Let's just say that I probably haven't been privy to your more charitable side."

Marie raised her eyebrows at Elizabeth. "Perhaps not." That sat side by side in silence for a long while. "I'm not getting rid of you, am I?"

"It is a pretty bleak outlook for you I'm afraid." Elizabeth quipped. "There is a high side though." Marie turned to look at her. "I'm a pretty big proponent of mothers, so as long as you love him unconditionally, I won't ever get in the way of your relationship." Marie opened her mouth to speak, but Elizabeth continued. "I really don't expect that we'll ever have one of those cutesy mother/daughter relationships, or that we'll even be frienldy, but I hope that someday we can achieve the level of 'not openly hostile.'"

"I could probably work on that." Marie said.

Elizabeth nodded. She stood and held out her hand to Marie. "Our man awaits." Pulling her up, they both entered Henry's room together.

Elizabeth made the now familiar trek to the 3rd floor of the hospital. It was day 9 of Henry's hospital stay. She was carrying both his backpack and hers. A few days ago, he had started feeling well enough to get back to school work, so now Elizabeth was playing courrier, dropping finished work off with his professors and picking up new assignments. She pushed his door open and he leapt up off the bed taking both packs from her. "Hey babe, let me get those." He set them on the bed. "Guess what?" he asked grinning widely.

"You get to go home?" she asked, hopeful.

"Oh, no, not exactly that great, but it is pretty great," he said.

"I give up, I don't know what's great but not that great."

Henry took her hand and pulled her to him. "Someone has been deemed contagion free."

She smiled, "Who? I'd like to congratulate them."

Henry playfully smacked her ass. "You are awful!" He pulled her closer and descended upon her lips. She smiled against him. "God, "I've missed this," he said, cupping the back of her head, holding her still, while he kissed her lightly the first time. He went back in for a second round and Elizabeth surprised him by burying her tongue in his mouth, dominating the kiss.

Eventually, when she pulled away, she said, "Yeah, I missed you too." She pecked him one more time. "So do you think we can break out of here and maybe go to the cafeteria or something?"

Picking up both backpacks, he grinned, "Let's go."

Elizabeth was putting on makeup, getting ready for class, when the phone rang. She made a face. No one ever called her early in the morning, well except the day that Henry called her to see if she would bring him breakfast. She picked up the phone and cautiously answered, "Hello."

"Good morning babe," Henry said.

"Hey. What are you up to this morning?" she grinned into the receiver.

"Thinking about you." There was a pause on his end.

"Henry?"

"Uh, yeah. I'm getting release later today," Henry said softly.

"Wow! That's great!" she took a deep breath. "Wait. What's wrong?"

"They're sending me home. To Pittsburgh."

Her breath left her lungs all at once and she felt like she couldn't get it back. "Well," she finally made herself say. "You'll be able to rest better at home, so you can get back on your feet faster."

"So they're telling me."

"It will be fine,right? Right. The most important thing is to get you well. How long? A week or so?"

"The best case scenario is that I get to come back after Spring Break,"

"Ooohh," she breathed out quietly. "That's a long time. It's-"

"Four weeks." He finished her sentence. She stayed silent on her end of the line. She closed her eyes and fought the wave of nausea that rolled over her. "Elizabeth?" His voice bounced around in her head for a few seconds before she could answer.

"Yeah?"

"Are you okay?"

"Umm, yeah. I'm fine." She rubbed her tears away with the back of her hand. "Hey, don't leave without saying goodbye, okay?" She absentmindedly twirled the phone cord around her finger.

"I would never leave with seeing you first."

"I know. Listen, I need to leave for class. I'm done at 1 and I'll come by my room first. Leave me a message letting me know what's going on. I love you."

"I will. I love you too, Bye."

"Bye," she whispered. She replaced the receiver on the cradle of the phone and picked up her backpack and headed out the door, wiping the fresh tears away as she went.

Sitting behind the wheel, Elizabeth turned out of the parking lot at the dorm and pointed the car north toward Pittsburgh. She'd made the 5 hour drive for the last four weekends. It was exhausting, but she wouldn't even consider not doing it. She had all of Henry's work piled in the front seat next to her and her duffle bag on the floor. As she merged onto the highway, she turned up the radio, and settled back for the long drive.

It was already dark by the time Elizabeth parked in front of the McCord home. Henry was out the door and down the walk by the time she stepped out of the car. He picked her up and spun her around in a circle on the sidewalk. "I missed you so much this week," he said, burying his face in her hair.

"You know the same is true for me. It hardly matters that we talk almost every night. I mean, I love that we do that, but I miss your touch, your presence." She tipped her head back to look at him, and he kissed her softly, his lips pressed to hers. It was chaste but profoundly sensual nonetheless.

"Let's get your stuff," he said when he let her go. He grabbed his books and she got her bag and they headed up the walk hand in hand.

They walked into the house giggling and Patrick looked up from the newspaper. "You're back? I think we need to start charging you rent, you're here so often."

"Good evening Mr. McCord," she said. "I would happily pay a room and board fee. The food is so much better here."

"Speaking of food, have you eaten yet?" Elizabeth shook her head no. Henry dragged her off to the kitchen to get her dinner. Marie was at the table making a list.

"Hi, Mrs. McCord," Elizabeth said brightly. "What are you working on?"

"A menu and grocery list for the weekend. What would you like to eat?" Marie asked, addressing Elizabeth.

"Everything you make is amazing, so it doesn't matter to me," she replied, getting a bowl from the cabinet and a spoon from the drawer.

Henry gave her the side eye. "Cereal?" he asked. "We have a whole house full of food and that's the best you can do?"

"It's fine. I don't need much and the dishes are already done. We aren't cooking now. Will you get me the milk?"

Henry shrugged and reached in the fridge for the milk and set it on the table. Elizabeth perused the cereal selection. "Just taking a moment to say that I love the choices here." Marie and Henry both looked over with confused expressions. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw them and laughed. "At Grandma's, she only has Grape Nuts and Shredded Wheat, and it's the plain ones, not even the frosted kind." She reached for a box of Fruit Loops and poured some in her bowl before replacing the box. When she sat down, Henry poured the milk. "Thank you," she said as he turned to stick the milk back in the fridge.

Henry scooted his chair closer to Elizabeth's, placed his hand on her thigh and asked her about everything that had been going on. It wasn't as if he didn't know most everything, because they talked every evening, but it was the act of sharing things in person that they both craved, being together. The two were in their own world when the chair across from them suddenly scraped the floor as it was pushed back and Marie disappeared into the laundry room. "That was abrupt," Henry said.

"Yeah. I would suppose we're a little annoying," Elizabeth said. Henry looked incredulous.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Henry asked, his tone taking on an unusual defensive tone. Elizabeth looked at him and put her arm around his back, leaning on him.

"I didn't mean anything bad, but you know your Mom is still struggling with this." She gestured between the two of them. "I'm sure it's hard for her to watch sometimes. Cut her some slack."

"She doesn't understand how lucky she is to have you," Henry said. "I would have been totally fed up with this situation long ago if it hadn't been for you." Henry looked and her. "Come here," he said. She leaned in and he kissed her. "You taste like Fruit Loops."

"I am a fruit loop," she giggled. "Let me finish this and I'll go talk to her. We've kind of got this understanding." Henry arched his eyebrows at her. "And besides, I'll be way more charitable than you will."

A few minutes later, Elizabeth was leaning in the doorway of the laundry room, carefully watching how Marie folded the bath towel she had in her hands. Only then, did Elizabeth join her. "I'll help," she said, taking a towel from the pile. Elizabeth watched Marie watch her as she expertly folded the towel just like Marie had folded the previous one.

"You're observant," Marie said.

"In my experience, folding someone's towels incorrectly is a surefire way to cause a lot of drama." Marie chuckled, and Elizabeth continued, "I remember the first time I had to fold towels at my Grandparents' house. It was probably a week after my parents died, and my chore was to fold the household laundry. I folded it the way we did at home, which I soon found out was all wrong. It was this huge ordeal at the time, and it must have made a big impression because now I still notice it. Like here, these hand towels go in the half bath downstairs and are always folded in quarters, but these, "she said, picking up another, " go upstairs and are folded in eighths."

"I wasn't going to be mad, but if you had done it wrong, I would've said something." Marie smirked and continued to fold.

Elizabeth folded a couple more in silence. "Henry's concerned about what happened in the kitchen."

"Which was?" she asked.

"Your abrupt and silent departure." Elizabeth replied.

"Oh, I just got a little overwhelmed. No malice intended." Elizabeth looked away and said nothing. She didn't feel like there was much to say. She wasn't going to be changing Marie's mind about her or about them. Elizabeth was surprised when Marie continued, "Sometimes it's just really sad to watch the two of you together, because I still see the amazing priest he would have been." Elizabeth turned back to Marie, ready to respond, but Marie stopped her. "Don't get your panties in a bunch, I'm not campaigning for that anymore. I see how he is when he's with you and I've spent the last month seeing him mope around until the moment you call or show up. It's a done deal. I know that. It's just not always easy to accept."

Elizabeth finished folding the last towel. "You'll get there. Eventually." She smiled and took one of the piles. "I'll carry these upstairs for you."


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: I'm going to apologize ahead of time. I left my laptop on the couch and it fell victim to a couple of 1 year olds who deleted large sections of this chapter. Of course, I went back and tried to recreate it, but I still don't think it sounds as good as it did originally. I'm sorry for the somewhat stilted paragraphs. Anyway, we need something to fill the void left by hiatus, and I'm sure you'll read regardless. I'd love it if you leave a review. All critiques are welcome.

Chapter 9

Henry and Elizabeth sat next to each other in the car, holding hands, headed back to UVA. They left Pittsburgh early Saturday morning, so they would have a day to get settled before they had to go back to class. It had been a little more than 6 weeks since Henry actually attended a class, but thanks to Elizabeth and some very generous professors, Henry had kept up and only had to take a couple tests as catch up his first week back.

Elizabeth was smiling ear to ear. She was excited to be back at school with Henry and not have to make weekly trips to Pittsburgh, and most importantly, Henry was given a clean bill of health by the doctors. She stared at the back of his hand which was resting in hers. Covering it with her other hand, she offered a prayer of thanks for Henry's health and quick recovery. Elizabeth certainly wasn't a religious person but she did feel a certain need to recognize when good things happened that were beyond her control. She shifted her weight and leaned across the console to rest her head on Henry's arm. "I love you. I'm so glad you are able to come back with me." Henry tilted his head to press a kiss to the top of hers.

"Me too, babe."

Henry unlocked his room and pushed the door open. "What happened? This place was a wreck when I left."

"I cleaned your room for you. Everything had to be disinfected, so I came over when you first went home and took care of it. It wasn't a big deal." Elizabeth said.

Henry set his bag down and took his backpack from Elizabeth. Turning to her, he said, "You are amazing. Thank you for doing that for me." He took her into his arms and kissed her. "Thank you for everything." He kissed her again, with more passion this time. "We have a few hours before we need to think about getting dinner." He winked at her. " You wanna mess around?" he asked.

She laughed. "And by mess around, you mean-?"

"Make love," he whispered against her ear. The words sent a chill down her spine. She hadn't expected Henry to say that. She was thrown off kilter.

"That's a big step, Henry."

"It is, but you are the one I want to be with for the rest of my life. I was under the impression that you felt the same way?"

"Of course I do. I don't imagine my life without you in it, but now that all of the love and emotion is tied up with sex, I'm not sure I'm ready for it. I realize how dumb that sounds since I was the one pushing for it at the beginning. Now it just seems more-more I don't know. Maybe more important. Is that okay?"

Henry hugged her and kissed her forehead. "Of course it is. We can take all the time we need. There isn't a rush. We have forever."

Elizabeth stood at Henry's door and knocked. Her finals were done, her room emptied and Pop-pop loaded most of her belongings and was already headed back to the farm. She knocked and Henry answered the door. "Hey there," she said, placing her hand on his chest and leaning in for a peck on the cheek.

"Are you all packed and ready to go home?" he asked.

"Yeah." She leaned against the doorframe.

"I wish I could convince you to stay until Friday when I have to leave."

"Me to, But my job starts Friday and you know that if I don't get all my stuff moved back in and put away, Grandma will be irate." Henry looked defeated. She knew he understood, but this was still hard for both of them. Since Henry's return to school, they rarely spent time apart, by their own choice. Each of them had gone out with friends a few times, but always ended up on the other's doorstep a few hours later. She shifted uneasily. "Would it be alright if I came in?"

"Oh, okay sure. I, I just thought you were leaving right away," Henry sputtered, seeming a little flustered.

"I was, but I told Pop-pop that I was going to hang out with you for a few hours before leaving." She met his gaze. "It's time." She stepped inside and grinned at him. "You wanna mess around?"

Henry looked at her seriously, "And by mess around, you mean-?

"Make love to me Henry." She reached out to him and he took her hand.

"Are you sure?" He studied her eyes

She smiled softly. "I've been ready for a while, but I wanted to make sure you were focusing on your classes, especially after being sick. I just wanted you to do your best without being distracted by me."

"You are never a distraction. You are my other half." Closing the small distance between them, he snaked his arm around her back and pressed her to his chest. "I love you." Gently he brushed his lips against hers. Taking her upper lip between his, he stilled.

Elizabeth smiled against his lips. "What?" she murmured.

Moving back the slightest bit, he whispered, "This feels monumental." Elizabeth hummed her agreement. "You are the last person I will ever be with."

She let out a slight laugh, "You better hope I'm good."

"I'm not worried about that at all," he mumbled before joining their lips again. Their tongues touched at the same time, tentatively at first, reminiscent of their first pulled back. "Hold on a sec." He let her go and stepped to the door and flipped the deadbolt. Moving back to her, he placed his hands on her waist. "May I undress you?" he asked. She swallowed thickly and put her hands over his, wrapping his fingers around the fabric at the bottom of her t-shirt. She raised her arms and he pulled the cotton garment over her head. Her blond waves tumbled over her shoulders. Henry brushed it back exposing her protruding collar bones. He placed light kisses there and up her neck stopping behind her ear. Her breaths were already shallow and wanting.

Elizabeth grasped the material at his waist and their eyes met with her asking permission. The shirt now tossed to the side, she ran her hands down his chest and unbuttoned his shorts and pushed both shorts and boxers over his hips and to the floor. His erection sprung free and poked her in the stomach causing her to giggle. She reached to touch it but Henry caught her hand. "This could be embarrassingly fast as it is without you touching me." Nodding her understanding and her own agreement, she ran her hands up his chest to his neck, pulling him down to kiss her. He hooked his fingers in the waistband of her shorts and pulled them down as well.

Now, he stepped back to view her, clad in only her undergarments. She watched his eyes get darker, the tug of desire deep in her core making it almost painful between her legs. She wanted him in a way she had never wanted anyone before. Her thoughts were jumbled, but she revised them immediately. She didn't just want him, she needed him. "Please." She wasn't able to finish that request, but Henry knew. Stepping back into her space, he ran his hands down her back, settling on her ass, pulling her into him. She moaned loudly. Wide-eyed, she clamped her hand over her mouth causing Henry to laugh. "That's so hot. Don't hold back. I want to hear how I make you feel." He continued, dragging her panties over her hips, letting her shimmy them to the floor, then he unhooked her bra as he planted kisses along her hairline.

Leading her to his bed, she scooted to the middle and held out her hand to him. He accepted it, crawling over the top of her and laying on her right side. She looked at him questioningly. He shrugged, "I do my best work with this hand."

Elizabeth laughed, "Then I think you should get to work." She was still laughing when he wrapped his fingers around her breast and massaged it, catching her nipple between his thumb and forefinger. "Uhhh… ahhh," she gasped. Then his mouth was on the other breast and her hips bucked into his thigh. "Oh God! Henry!" She was loud and she didn't care. The current running from her breasts to her center was strong. Elizabeth ran her hand into Henry's hair and fisted it, dragging him to her mouth. She kissed him hard, her tongue thrashing in his mouth, her body begging to be satisfied. She reached over and grasped his cock, stroking him much more gently than her mood indicated, but she didn't want to push him too far. She wanted him inside her.. Seeing her need, Henry rolled on top of her, his sex now pressed against hers, her arousal coating him.

Elizabeth felt like there had to be a pool of her juices soaking the bed sheets, she was that ready for Henry. He pressed himself against her opening, but waited for her confirmation before entering. She opened her eyes and met his, giving him a wicked grin , pushing her hips into his joining them. Deep moans came from both of them being locked together and he pushed the rest of the way into her, He stilled for a moment, collecting himself, trying to hold off, but Elizabeth would have no part of it. "I need you to move. Now."

"If I do that, I'm going to come." he panted, trying desperately to stave off his urges.

She slipped her hand between them. "Go," she growled, and he began to move, a few strokes slow and deliberate, but then harder and faster as he chased his own pleasure. She rubbed tight circles on her clit. "Are you-?" she started. Henry buried his head in her shoulder and grunted. She pressed her clit hard and her walls closed in around his pulsing cock. She arched her back and cried out his name as he spilled into her. Henry collapsed onto Elizabeth as her muscles still seized around him. Finally, she calmed and Henry rolled off of her.

"Wow," he said.

"Uh huh,"she agreed. "That was the best first time I've ever had."

"Yeah. It might have been in the running for best ever."

"Don't count on it staying that way. I give an excellent blow job that will add a level of technical difficulty that this round lacked."

"That's good to know," he whispered, "I have decent oral skills myself and fingers barely touched what they are capable of." She laughed and blushed simultaneously. She curled up into his side and pressed her hand to his chest feeling his heartbeat beneath.

Two hours later they stood next to Elizabeth's car saying goodbye for real this time. "I'll see you in three weeks," she said.

"Yes, Memorial Day, your place. Picnics and horses and you." Henry's arms were slung low on her hips, holding her close. He spoke low in her ear.

"Mmm hmm and then the 4th of July. Pittsburgh, picnics and fireworks and you." She gently kissed the pulse point on his neck. "And maybe I'll sneak up to see you some other time because I'm going to miss you so much."

"You've got to go or your Grandma will be wanting to kick my butt," Henry said but he didn't let her go.

"Yeah. That could happen." Elizabeth placed her hands on Henry's shoulders and pulled him down for a kiss. "Thank you for today," she whispered.

Henry held her there and kissed her again. "It was my pleasure and the first of thousands of times in our lifetime. You are incredible and I'm so blessed that you are willing to walk with me." She melted into him.

"I've really got to go. I'll call you tonight when I get home. I love you." Henry opened the door for Elizabeth and kissed her before she got in. As Elizabeth pulled out of the parking lot, she watched Henry wave in the rear view mirror until she was out of sight.

Elizabeth thought she would be fine. She considered herself to be a very strong and independent person. So she was unnerved by the overwhelming longing she felt for Henry. She supposed it had something to do with his illness and their separation after. At first, she figured that it would get better after a few days. However, each day was the same. She worked, took Buttercup out for a ride, and talked to Henry in evening. She would say her goodbyes, hang up and go to bed, frequently crying herself to sleep

By the time that Memorial weekend rolled around, Elizabeth beyond excited. She sat on the porch swing impatiently waiting for Henry. She spoke to him the evening before and knew his plans. He should be arriving any time. She leapt from the swing when he pulled into the driveway and stood waiting at the bottom of the steps.

Henry laughed when Elizabeth nearly pulled him from the car to hug him. She clung to him like a baby koala, tears streaming down her face and mumbling into his ear. "I'm so sorry I'm bawling like a crazy person. I just missed you so much, and I'm so glad you're here. I love you."

"Babe. I'm here. I missed you too. Come, let's sit down." She dropped her legs to the ground, but didn't let go of him as they awkwardly made their way up the steps to the porch swing. Elizabeth let him sit down, but she sat next to him so close that their bodies melded together and she threw her left leg over his right and wrapped her arms around his waist.

"I hope you weren't really thinking about having alone time while you were here. Because, I don't plan on letting you get very far from me."

"Bathroom?" he joked.

"I can sit on the edge of the bathtub," Henry shot her a look and she laughed. "Just teasing. That's weird. I'll just wait outside the door." Henry grinned at her and she tipped her head back licking her lips. For the first time since arriving, he kissed her. She sighed into his kiss. It was like there was a knot insider her that she wasn't even aware of until he untangled it. She felt better in that moment than she had in the previous three weeks.

That afternoon, Henry rested back on his elbows while Elizabeth was laying on her back next to him, a red wool blanket beneath them both. "Lunch was great. Thank you," Henry said.

"It was tasty, but I ate too much. I am so full, I need a nap." Elizabeth groaned, patting her stomach.

"Then take a nap." Henry reached across Elizabeth and brushed a few hairs off her face. "We have no place to be for a while."

Elizabeth grinned. "I'm all for staying here a while, but I don't think I should take a nap."

"Oh?"

She giggled. "We can spend some time making out. I'll show you how much I've missed you." She gathered a handful of Henry's shirt and pulled him toward her. Henry rolled to her smiling.

In the evening, Elizabeth and Henry sat on the screened in porch with Joe and Elaine. They finished their dinner and sat talking. "When do you have to go back Henry?" Joseph asked.

"I need to leave Monday afternoon. I have be to at work early Tuesday morning. Just listening to Henry say it, caused her to tense up. It was only Saturday, Elizabeth reminded herself. She still had a day and a half. She talked herself down and squeezed Henry's hand and glanced at him. He gave her a big smile.

Elizabeth was in bed when there was a soft knock at her door. She tiptoed to her door and cracked it open. Henry stood in the hall, grinning like a Cheshire cat. "Get in here," she whispered. "I've been waiting for weeks for this."

"I hope you are planning on being quiet or Will will rat us out." Henry teased.

Elizabeth glared at him, "I'm sure I'll be able to handle it. Now you promised me some of your best 'handiwork.'" Henry grinned, popped his knuckles, picked her up and threw her down in the middle of her bed. "Oh yeah," she mumbled as he crawled on the bed, "This will be good."

The weekend flew by and Monday morning rolled around to find Henry and Elizabeth leaning against his car holding hands. "You know, I am totally pissed at myself right now." Elizabeth turned away from Henry, tears threatening to fall.

Henry turned into her, resting his chin on her shoulder, his arms wrapped tight around her middle. "What is it, babe?" She forced all of the air out of her lungs in a big huff.

"I just am frustrated that I can't hold it together better. I am strong. I am smart. I am capable. I don't need you to complete me. I am fine without you. Right?" She went on barely taking a breath, "But the thing is, I'm not fine, and I do need you. When I'm not with you, I'm lost, I don't know what to do with myself. I just miss you so much. I long for your touch. And frankly it's both scary and infuriating to be so dependent on you."

"You know I'm the same way," Henry said, brushing her hair aside and kissing the back of her neck.

"Right!" she scoffed. "You aren't a blubbering mess that cries yourself to sleep every night because you know you aren't going to see me the next day and aren't able to sleep the day before you do see me because you are beside yourself ecstatic."

"Well," Henry blushed, "I kind of am. I don't cry often, but I just mope around all depressed and I won't talk to anyone." He laughed, "It was so bad that Maureen called me a name and Mom overheard and drug her off by her ear and shoved soap in her mouth."

Elizabeth twisted around in Henry's arms to face him. "She did not!"

"She did, I tell you."

"Henry. Maureen is 19." Henry nodded. Elizabeth grinned. "So, what did your 19 year old sister say to you that your mother found so bad that she washed her mouth out with soap?"

Henry's face turned bright red. "Uh, it's kind of embarrassing."

"Seriously, you did not just tell me this story, not to tell me what she said." Elizabeth poked him in the ribs. "You could have just skipped the story if you didn't want me to know."

"Fine," Henry sighed and mumbled, "She said I was pussy whipped," Elizabeth giggled. She covered her hand with her mouth trying to hold it back, but was struggling to keep her laughter in check. "I prefer to think of it more like I love you and miss you."

Elizabeth kissed him. "That actually makes me feel so much better,." She grinned against him. "Not that you should ever tell your sister, but you haven't had enough contact with it to be whipped yet."

They both laughed and he kissed her. "I have to go. I'll call when I get home, okay?"

"Yeah, I'll be waiting." She giggled, her mind still on the previous conversation. "Does that mean I'm dick whipped?"

"I don't think so." Henry laughed, " I think it just means that we care about each other. Our relationship isn't based on control of each other. I love you and want to be with you."

"Me too. Call me, okay? Love you." He got in the car and drove away. Elizabeth wiped away her tears and walked out to the barn. She needed a long ride. Buttercup would make it better.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Elizabeth's fingers strummed mindlessly to the rhythm coming from the car speakers. She wasn't really listening to the music. She was thinking about Henry. Henry was never far from her thoughts. July 4th fell on a Saturday and she originally thought it would be great because she wouldn't have to take an extra day off of work. But, after Memorial Weekend, she knew that a day and a half with Henry for the 4th would not be enough. Elizabeth took the Friday and Monday off, so that she could leave Thursday after work, agreeing to work 10 hour days the rest of the week to cover it. "Small sacrifice," she murmured to herself as her thoughts were vocalized.

After what seemed like an eternity, she pulled up in front of the McCord home. The porchlight was on but the rest of the house was dark. It was 11 PM, which was late, she reasoned, but she had come later than that in the past and the lights were always on and Henry was always up waiting for her. Something wasn't right and a large knot formed in her stomach. Silently she opened the front gate and went up the walk. She was about to step on the first step when a voice called out, "Is that you, Elizabeth?"

She spun around trying to locate the voice and then a light switched on next door. An elderly lady stepped out the porch next door. "Yes, Mrs. Wright, it is?" She crossed the yard so she could see the lady better. "What are you doing out so late?"

"I'm supposed to let you know that you need to go to the hospital." Elizabeth gripped the fence rail and fought off the panic that washed over her. "Patrick was in an accident at work. They are all there with him. I don't know the specifics, but it didn't sound good."

"Thanks for letting me know." Elizabeth said. "What's the best way to get to the hospital? I'm still not too familiar with the area."

Arriving at the hospital at such a late hour, Elizabeth struggled to find a person to give her information. Finally, making her way to the Emergency Room , she found someone at a desk and was directed to the second floor surgery waiting room. When the elevator door opened, Elizabeth saw Henry at the end of the hallway pacing. She was walking quickly, holding onto a small amount of social decorum that said she couldn't run inside. She made it to within ten feet of him, when Henry looked up, seeing her for the first time. He closed the gap and swept her into his arms.

"Henry," she held him close and breathed in his scent, which calmed her. "What happened?" she asked as they walked arm in arm toward the waiting room. Henry told her of his Dad's fall at work. He now had swelling in his brain and it was creating pressure, so now they were putting in a temporary shunt to relieve the pressure. Then they would wait and see. When they reached the door to the waiting room, she asked, "How are you doing?"

Henry gave her a sad smile. "I'm better now that you're here." She kissed him gently and then opened the door.

The weekend was not how she hoped it would be. Elizabeth knew it couldn't be helped, but she couldn't stop herself from feeling a bit disappointed. There was no alone time, no real cuddling, and certainly no "extracurricular" activities. Here it was, Saturday evening, the 4th of July, and Henry was conspicuously missing. She took a deep breath and swallowed her frustration. She couldn't do anything about it. She just needed to get over it. Patrick was doing better and that was the part that mattered.

Elizabeth's full attention was on an issue of People magazine that she'd read at least three times now. She was startled when Henry touched her arm. "Will you walk with me?"

"Of course," she said laying the magazine back on the side table

"Mom, we'll be back in a little bit," he told Marie and she nodded. Elizabeth smiled. She and Marie seemed to have come to an understanding. They weren't really friendly. It was closer to civil. Given what they started with, Elizabeth would taken civil as a victory.

"Were you in with your Dad?" Elizabeth asked.

"No, I was taking care of something else," he said. Elizabeth didn't ask anymore questions. She was just happy to have a few minutes alone with Henry. They stepped to the elevator and Henry pushed the button to go up.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"You'll see," he said. Elizabeth opened her mouth to ask further questions, but the elevator dinged and he guided her inside. He pushed a button and then wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in her neck. "This was not how our weekend was supposed to go," he murmured.

"It's fine," she started, but Henry cut her off with a searing kiss. A fire was stoked in her belly the product of a combination of sleep deprivation and longing. "I want you so much," she whispered.

"We have something to do first," he said. On cue, the elevator dinged and the door opened into a small lobby looking area. The door was labeled "roof."

"What are we doing here?" Elizabeth asked as Henry unlocked the door and she walked through to survey the roof. Henry smiled, kissed her cheek and laced his fingers in hers, silently asking her to walk with him. They rounded some large metal unit, maybe refrigeration or air conditioning she supposed, and what she saw before her brought tears to her eyes.

There was a blanket spread out, a picnic basket and an ice bucket, wine bottled tucked inside. Henry stepped in behind her and nuzzled her neck. "Can we watch the fireworks together?"

Elizabeth tipped her head back and tilted so she could see Henry. "You are so good, McCord." She giggled, "What did you bring to feed me?"

He laughed. "Chicken, potato salad, strawberries and popcorn for the fireworks." He let her go. "Come on. I'm hungry too."

It was still warm even at dusk, but there was a breeze, so it was bearable. They ate, and chatted, mostly about Patrick and what his recovery would look like and plans for the rest of the summer. Putting the dishes back in the picnic basket, Henry divided the last of the wine into their glasses and put the wine bottle in too. "I think we have a little time before the fireworks start. He arched his eyebrows at her. "You wanna mess around?"

She grinned, "How private is this?" At that point, Elizabeth wasn't really sure she cared. The danger of getting caught was a turn out itself.

Henry shrugged, "I needed a key, but I'm sure other people have keys."

"'I'll take my chances." She crawled on his lap and kissed him. He grinned against her lips.

They reached their peak one right after the other, just as the fireworks display started. Coming down from her high, she giggled, "Now you can always say that you made me see fireworks."

"I always see fireworks." Henry mumbled into her hair. They rearranged their clothes and snuggled close, marveling at the beauty in the sky.

"Thank you for going to all this trouble. I know you are stressed about your dad, and it means a lot that you took the time to plan this." She ran her hand up his arm and rested it on his shoulder. "You are so good to me, Henry."

Henry looked into Elizabeth's eyes and removed her hand and held it tightly. "We need to talk, but first I just want you to know that you will always be my priority. I will always make time for you." He pulled her hand to his mouth and kissed it. "Now, the other thing." He took a deep breath. "We haven't really outwardly talked about this much, but I want you to know I love you."

"And I love you," Elizabeth interrupted.

"I know," he smiled, "But there's more." Henry took a deep breath before he continued. "I know that I want to spend the rest of my life with you and I'm ready to make that known to everyone else too." Henry paused to let that sink in.

"Are you asking if I want to marry you?" A wave of panic rolled over her, so much so that it physically made her lean back. She was much too young to get married. She was still in school. How would they manage that? Did UVA even have married housing? Her mind was trying to process all of the questions at once. Then she felt it. The familiar undertone of her undying love for Henry was running concurrently in the back of her mind. When she stopped and focused on that, love pushed the panic away and she smiled shyly.

Henry blushed, "Well yeah." He hesitated, "But not right now. I was thinking that maybe we could get married after you graduate."

"After I graduate. That makes sense. I'd be on board for that."

"On board, huh?" Henry laughed. That sounds like a ringing endorsement.

She laughed too. "How about, I'm _really_ on board?"

"That's better." Henry looked at Elizabeth very seriously. "Well if you're really on board, I think we need a concrete representation." Elizabeth gave him a blank look. She had no idea what he was talking about.

He shifted to his side and pulled a box from his pocket. Taking her hand, he asked, "Elizabeth Adams will you marry me?"

They stood in the elevator hand in hand returning to the waiting room to check on the family and Patrick. Grinning, Elizabeth threw her hip into Henry. "What was that for?" he said, smirking back at her.

"Just letting you know that I love you," she said. Henry just grinned at her.

After receiving congratulations by most of the McCord family, Maureen being the exception, Marie motioned her over. This was the moment Elizabeth had been dreading since they exited the elevator. Marie's general disdain for Elizabeth was known to all. "Come sit with me," Marie said. Elizabeth sat down in the chair next to Marie. "So, Henry and I had a long talk a couple weeks ago, before he bought this," Marie picked up Elizabeth's hand and looked at her ring. "He did a good job, didn't he?"

"Yes. Very much so," Elizabeth replied. She knew Marie had more to say, so she waited.

"Henry told me that it was only because of you that he was still here, with us. That if it had been up to him, he would've left that day before Thanksgiving and he wouldn't have come back. But, that it was you who pushed him to call to make amends. And it was you who brushed our-no, my-treatment of you aside and said that he needed to maintain the relationship with his family. Looking back, I made some really poor choices in dealing with this situation and I now see that the only reason I didn't lose my son was because of you. So, thank you for being the bigger person when I was obviously not and I hope that one day you can forgive me."

"I already told you that I have a soft spot for moms. I am in the unfortunate situation of knowing what it's like to lose your parents and feel like you left things unsaid. I didn't want Henry to ever go through that. As far and you and i go, I really tried to never take it personally. I always tried to think that it was situational and you would've hated anyone who was in my position. I forgive you, but I hope you know how much I love Henry and that I would go to the ends of the earth for him. I know this isn't the life you thought he would have, but I promise that I will do everything in my power to make it a good one."

"I know you will. I see how much you loves him.. It's written all over your face.. The two of you will have many blessings in your life. I'm sure of it." Much to Elizabeth's surprise, Marie leaned forward and kissed her cheek before standing. "Why don't the two of you go home and spend some time together.?"

Elizabeth sat, waiting for Henry to return from visiting Patrick. She stared at the ring on her finger and her mind wandered back to the evening a little over nine months ago when Henry McCord walked into a library study room and her breath was taken away. "He's mine," she whispered to herself and she was eternally thankful for World Religions class, coffee, meningitis and even Marie McCord.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this spin on young Henry and Elizabeth. For all intents and purposes, it is complete.


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